Amy Van Dyken-Rouen talks keto
Olympian says diet helped after paralysis.
Amy Van Dyken-Rouen, former competitive swimmer, national radio sports talk show co-host and motivational speaker, doesn’t hesitate when asked whether it was easier to win six Olympic gold medals or to recover from her spinal cord injury in 2014.
“Being a swimming champion was way easier,” she said. “It was hard work, but everybody loves you. Your face is on the Wheaties box, the milk ad. Then all of a sudden you get injured, and ... your challenges are putting on shoes when your feet are too swollen.”
Four years ago, Van DykenRouen was in an ATV accident that left her with a traumatic brain injury and a severed spinal cord. “When (my husband) Tom found me and rolled me over, I was seizing. Flight for Life was more worried about my head injury than they were about my back.”
She woke up in the hospital confused and paralyzed from the waist down. “I don’t remember a lot of things. It was hard for me for a really long time to put a sentence together. I had to go to speech therapy. Even up until a year ago, I didn’t think I could get back in radio again because I couldn’t think of words.”
In addition to the psychological challenge of coming to terms with her injuries, she had to battle the searing, constant nerve pain that affects some paraplegics.
Van Dyken-Rouen fought through years of physical therapy and medication changes; finally, a combination of medications saved her from unbearable pain but also caused swelling, a 50-pound weight gain and fatigue that had her sleeping 14 to 16 hours a day.
Endlessly optimistic, Van Dyken-Rouen began looking for a solution. What she found was the ketogenic diet.
“I found out about it at my husband’s dear friend’s wedding. I was sitting with his sister, and she was like, ‘I don’t crave sweets.’ I started listening to her. I’m Dutch, and all we do is crave sweets. It’s our big thing. ...
“I went back home, did a bunch of research, found a bunch of cool people, and I said, ‘I’m going to go for it.’ And here we are, one year later, and it’s amazing. It’s everything that she said it would be.”
‘It has helped everything’
Van Dyken-Rouen credits a lot of the improvement to her mental clarity, energy and even body image to the keto diet. “You’ve got to find a way to make your life as awesome as you can make it,” she said. “That’s why I’m glad I found this diet. It has helped everything.”
The keto diet is the latest trendy eating plan – hailed by the likes of Halle Berry and Kim Kardashian – but it’s also backed by research. According to Healthline, the low-carb, high-fat diet tricks your body into the metabolic process of ketosis, in which it begins efficiently burning fat.
Proponents of the diet say there’s evidence it supplies energy to the brain, cuts down fatigue and controls blood sugar and insulin levels – Van DykenRouen says she has gotten all of those results and more.
“Being on the keto diet has absolutely helped me with my cognitive ability,” she said. “I can remember words; I can hold a conversation. ... My long-term memory is amazing and short-term memory is getting better.”
The keto diet also helped Van Dyken-Rouen to regain control and confidence.
“I always wondered why a lot of people in wheelchairs wear long pants,” she says. “The first year or so, I’d wear shorts and have no problem. As you start to lose your muscle mass, it does become hard to look at, and that was hard for me. Now I wear shorts again, I don’t care. Now I feel fantastic. And it’s not just because of the weight loss. I’ve just realized that every person at their own weight is a beautiful human. Just because I sit down doesn’t make me any less attractive than what I was before.”
Evangelizing the benefits
Van Dyken-Rouen wants to spread the word about the keto diet and posts on her YouTube channel about her journey.
“Here’s my thought: If you’re having any problems like this – you want to lose weight, you don’t have energy – what is trying for a month going to do? It’s not going to hurt anything.”
Looking back on the past four years since her accident, Van Dyken-Rouen doesn’t see the barriers or remember the pain as much as she sees progress and growth.
“When you work hard and you treat your body right, in my situation, you feel better about yourself,” she says. “The winning is a lifelong thing. You have a better attitude. You’re more fun to be around. You’re getting your life back, not just a piece of metal.”