How Kathleen Discovered the Power of Bone Broth to Heal

Kathleen Brown was never one to exercise. She never really thought about what she ate either. Then one day something clicked.

The mother of eight and grandmother of two was in her late 40s, 40 pounds overweight and experiencing some joint pain when she realized that she was setting a bad example. She wanted to live a long, healthy life, and she wanted her kids to have a good example of how to do it. As a manager of a healthcare facility that treats children with congenital heart disease, she also felt like she needed to practice what she preached.

“I used to speak to my patients about what they should do, but I couldn’t talk to them about being healthy when I was 40 pounds overweight,” Kathleen said.

So she started running.

In 2015, Kathleen ran two half marathons and completed 17 5K races. She completed the first 5K race in 42 minutes. She finished the last one in 27. “I got pretty good at it,” she said. But then the hip pain really started to settle in. It was a pain that would wake her up in the middle of the night. And it was followed by a foot pain that made it increasingly hard to walk, much less run.

After seeking four different opinions from four different doctors, Kathleen learned that her extreme hip pain was being caused by a congenital foot problem in her right foot—her bones were simply growing the wrong way. That affected her gait and threw off her balance, putting pressure on her right hip, wearing down the cartilage between the bones, and causing inflammation.

Doctors immediately prescribed steroid injections to ease the problem. But Kathleen wasn’t comfortable resorting to drugs immediately, knowing that there might be another, more natural way. So she consulted her friend, a beekeeper with a science degree and owner of a natural beauty products company. Her friend recommended she see if the inflammation would go down with diet alone.

Kathleen found a basic bone broth recipe online with turmeric and ginger. She sourced grass-fed bone from local farms and started making her own long-simmered bone broth. She drank one mug of bone broth in the morning and one before dinner. Within four weeks, Kathleen said she noticed a huge difference in her hip. Within six weeks, the pain was completely gone.

It was a revelation, she said, and one that made her reconsider her diet altogether.

That was at the beginning of 2016. While the hip pain was virtually gone, the foot pain just kept getting worse, and she still couldn’t run. Surgery was the only way to fix it. So Kathleen went in for a four-hour surgery at the end of 2016. She was in a cast for six weeks, and as a result, she couldn’t stand up to make bone broth.

Searching for ready-made bone broths, Kathleen came across Kette & Fire. It was the first brand she found that had good, trusted ingredients, with bones from grass-fed animals and organically farmed vegetables.

After her surgery, Kathleen started stocking up on Kettle & Fire to make sure she always has some bone broth on hand, in case she runs out or finds herself without time to make it. Now she recommends bone broth to anyone and everyone, including one of her daughters, to support her skin, and her elderly parents to support their joint health.

Her daughter in Texas remarked that she now drinks bone broth all the time to recover from hangovers.

Kathleen is still recovering now and still drinking six to eight ounces of bone broth a day with pinch of salt and pepper. She’s focusing on nutrition now more than ever, as she has realized the power of food to heal, she said. While the doctors are convinced that Kathleen won’t be able to run again on her right foot, she isn’t giving up hope.

“If I rehab right, focus on nutrition, and drink my bone broth, I really do [believe I] have a chance to run again,” she said. “For now, I’m just happy to not be in pain anymore.”