Diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis at age 15, I’ve been no stranger to the trials and tribulations of
how deeply health challenges can impair one's quality of life.
Had I floated along in a mediocre state of health, my research, education, training, and clinical practice and certainly DW would never have come to be. It was through deep despair in hospitalizations weighing 80 lbs., surviving on insanely high doses of steroids that I began a lifelong journey of studying health, in all facets, with (of course) a focus on gut health.
Figuring out the ROOT CAUSE of my disease became my life mission. Because I sure as hell knew it wasn't just "auto-immune."
A career lost
The dance career that was ahead of me was destroyed, along with my mental health. Having attended the nation's top Creative and Performing Arts high school for ballet and modern dance, followed by a full scholarship at a private arts college, it's impossible to articulate how devastated I was when my career as an artist dissolved due to my failing health.
My world soon became an obsession in knowing where every single bathroom was, wherever I was - assuming I would dare leave the house. The amount of pain, accidents, blood-loss, and threats from doctors who wanted to remove my colon left me basically bed-ridden and severely depressed. I became masterful at hiding my disease; isolating myself, and turning to alcohol for quite some time to numb the pain. My mental health dissolved. I couldn’t believe my world had become pure tragedy.
The quest for answers
From a young age I was captivated by plants and herbology, so I began my quest in the pursuit of a Master's of Science in Oriental Medicine. I became a modest acupuncturist, but excelled greatly in herbalism. In my grad program, I discovered my strength in pattern recognition, with a keen ability to diagnose energetic organ disharmonies according to Chinese principles.
I wish I could say these skills led me to resolving my "disease." Nope. Not even close.
After realizing that Chinese Medicine was not going to do anything for my UC, my next stop was Functional Medicine. Surely a more scientific, systems biology approach would have the answers. So in 2013, alongside two thousand MD’s in Scottsville, Arizona (me being the only DOM in the group) I became certified with the Institute of Functional Medicine.
I became obsessed with doing Functional Medicine lab work, with the best labs in the country. This alternative approach would surely lead me to discovering the root cause of my UC…I was betting on it. My practice became integrative; surely the combination of Oriental and Allopathic systems equal the highest calibration of medicine.
We simply can’t ignore the impact on our health of this modern day living where we are constantly exposed to toxins. My every prayer revolved around finding the root cause of my disease through this system. I went down dozens of rabbit holes, many of which involved treating it like an infection, which only made me worse.
Interestingly enough, although my journey into FM held no solutions for my chronic UC, I was able to help so many patients in my practice during these years. FM labs can be incredibly eye-opening, once specific toxins or infections are identified.
Sometimes I would be in clinic with patients making great headway with lab interpretation, while running to the bathroom as discreetly as I could, losing insane amounts of blood. I just kept going, amidst extreme fatigue and weakness at times. I truly believe it was simply being of service to others that kept me going during that period… gave me purpose.
In 2017, I began having visions of an online platform. A place that would offer Functional Medicine labs and (hopefully) solutions. I wanted to write blogs, share whatever I had to offer, including my experience so that others with chronic illness didn’t feel so alone.
It would be remiss of me to not share a deep origin of my relentless pursuit in creating DW. I literally kept getting these downloads of this iconic phrase in the 1999 baseball fantasy film Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner, (and I had only seen the movie once, many many moons ago). It was all so very kismet. The phrase that kept echoing from the movie was:
“If you build it, they will come.”
And it never let up, so, as I have always done- I obeyed this orbital calling. I dreamed up this archetypal name for myself that felt true. I was a Warrior at heart. I never let up in battle to find my root cause- ever. Metaphorically speaking, I was never looking for a knight, I was looking for my sword. As silly as it sounds (and I know it does), I started adorning my spaces with swords from all eras. Their energy brought me great inspiration and strength.
Don’t underestimate the power of symbology- once upon a time civilization very much honored such things, along with ritual. These things are lost in today’s medicine, sadly.
So this is how DW came to be. Within less than a year, it blew up. I’m not even quite sure how it happened, although a few specific things surely contributed.
How DW quickly became the top online selling platform for companies such as Cellcore, Systemic Formulas, Des Bio and many others:
Firstly, I was the first one ever to sell Microbiome Labs, MegaSporeBiotic online. This was no small thing. As soon as I saw this company pop up and read that the founder, microbiologist Kiran Krishnan, was pioneering spore-based probiotics here in the states, I knew it would be a game changer. I had studied soil-based probiotics for years- I knew their powers. Although they were commonplace in Europe (prescription even), the U.S. was of course way behind. Having given up on conventional probiotics clinically many years ago, I knew the promise of Bacillus spores. The second MegaSpore went up on DW, it began selling like crazy.
The word was out. Literally overnight I had to get a commercial space and figure out how to run an e-commerce business, hiring my first employees. Within weeks we were selling thousands (not hundreds) of bottles per month. Rewriting this ‘About Me’ section now in 2026- we have sold over one million bottles of MicrobiomeLabs spores. Holy. Wow. I never intended originally for DW to be an e-comm business.
My visions initially were quite different, actually. But with the birth of MegaSpore, I was on a mission to bring these divine spores to anyone suffering with gut issues. Funny enough, they don’t do much for folks with Ulcerative Colitis, but I absolutely knew the benefits for almost all other gut conditions such as IBS, Candida, SIBO, and even just gas and bloating. They can be life-changing.
I actually interviewed Kiran (many years ago now). We talked all about spores and gut health. If you’re interested, find that interview here. Kiran is a wealth of knowledge, also very generous, sending me and a handful of other practitioners (that were equally as passionate about spores) on a magical trip all over Italy. Crazy, but I was actually still sick at the time. Of course, I told no one during the trip that I was popping steroids just to not be running to find a bathroom around every corner all over Italy. I still had fun, but the fact that my health was still so challenged definitely wore on me as I witnessed everyone else on the trip drinking wine, as care free as can be…
My journey into Crohn’s research
I wrote an e-book that ended up going some really interesting places. I was fascinated by the latest research on Crohn’s disease. Although the research was all there, the lay person who doesn’t find themselves constantly reading up on the newest research had no idea about any of it. So, I wrote a book called “Wake up to the Truth Behind Crohn’s Disease.” It ended up getting sponsored by an organization called Human Para Foundation- a non-profit group of MD’s and other scientists from around the globe dedicated to research on the role of Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP) in Crohn’s and potentially other immune related conditions.
My e-book was a simple lay interpretation of this new science, with splashes of humor and sarcasm.It began to circulate, and I then became a conduit in helping patients get their blood samples overseas to New Zealand to the only microbiologist trained in identifying MAP under a microscope. These were interesting years, and although I have varying thoughts these days on MAP in relation to Crohn’s, I’d like to think I helped many folks during that feat. I have since set aside my work in this area, as my quest in healing the world of UC took over.
The breakthrough
What comes next is hard for me to even believe. I’m still pinching myself as I write this. In 2020, I came across research papers on UC written by Dr. Jay Pravda. There were instant flutters in my insides. I was always keeping up with the latest research into IBD, but this felt different. His research claimed to identify the root cause of UC, stating it had nothing to do with the immune system. The premise (in summary) was simply that people with UC had excess hydrogen peroxide building up in their mitochondria. This was not something I'd ever heard before. I became obsessed. I had to speak with him.
Once I started Dr. Pravda's treatment, my colon stopped bleeding within 24 hours and within ten days it was as if UC never existed. I shed tears every time I reflect on this.
There are way too many details and logistics to go into here on who, what, when, where, and how I was able to begin Dr. Pravda’s treatment. Suffice to say, it sounds hard to believe, even to me.
So again, I pivoted.
My mission then became one of bringing Dr. Pravda’s work to light, as not many yet knew of it. The biggest hurdle was that the very molecule his work revolved around for treatment: R-Dihydrolipoic acid (R-DLA), was not being manufactured at the time, and there was very little left over from a clinical trial that took place fifteen years ago.
So, onto manufacturing I go. Talk about climbing a mountain. It took me almost three years, but I did it. It’s not the easiest molecule to make, PhD chemists required. It’s also very unstable, extremely sensitive to oxygen. I navigated all of these complexities, and now my sister company Redox BioScience offers this one of a kind antioxidant; also known as a reducing agent. Get rid of the peroxide, you get rid of UC. It’s astonishingly that simple.
I created another website, UCNoMore, with all of Pravda’s work and then some to share with the world. He is a guest blog writer for the site, bringing ongoing insight to the UC community.
Today
What more can I say? Oh- I just had a baby. For the fist time in my adult life I was able to conceive. My body has made a full recovery. I came to the very brink of scheduling a colectomy, looking in the mirror some days wondering if I should just end it all. The pain, at times, was almost unbearable.
Today, when I wake and the first thing I see is my son’s eyes, I thank the heavens. Each day feels so enchanted now.
I remember all those insanely hard years, but it’s all a blur. Now every day is a prayer to help as many people as I possibly can in overcoming hard health battles.
Sometimes, it just takes someone who has been in your shoes saying ‘you can do this.’ And you can. I’m living proof.
- Karen Mullins DOM
