Gordon Ryan has not kept it a secret that a battle with a devastating stomach issue has kept him off the mats in recent years, but not many people will know just how bad the problem really was. Ryan dealt with it in private for some time before the problem got so difficult that he started to talk openly about it and at one point, it actually forced him to temporarily retire from professional grappling altogether. When he recently went on an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience with ADCC head organiser Mo Jassim, he actually took the time to talk over the issue and even explained how the very first diagnosis he received after months of suffering was actually incorrect:
“And it ended up being a massive fungal growth in my small intestine, a huge bacterial imbalance in my stomach… It was misdiagnosed as a gastroparesis.”
Gordon Ryan also explained what he chose to do when he got to his worst point and just how bad the stomach issue really was at that time:
“And I was like, okay… If I can’t use these doctors to figure it out, I’ll just deal with it and hope that it’ll become better. But it just got worse over time, because the fungal growth kept getting worse and worse. And it was affecting my kidney function, it was just awful. I was 24/7 nauseous. The best way that I can describe is – the worst hangover you ever had. Like, you want to throw up to feel better, but you can’t… That was my baseline. And imagine you go to training, with the worse hangover you’ve ever had. And then you have to run a marathon, 30 minutes later. So, the more tired you get – the worse it gets.”
Fortunately for professional grappling fans everywhere, Ryan managed get time in with a doctor recommended by Jassim himself and he was apparently able to work wonders. Ryan says that today he feels around 75% better than he used to be and this is what has allowed him to feel able to compete in the upcoming 2022 ADCC world championships.
The below clip of Gordon Ryan discussing his stomach issue with Joe Rogan was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of the Joe Rogan Experience:
