Ryan Sutter’s Mystery Illness Revealed: ‘Things Are Looking Up’

Months after battling a “mystery illness,” “The Bachelorette” alum Ryan Sutter is finally getting some answers about his health.

On Tuesday, Sutter revealed his Lyme disease diagnosis. On his wife Trista’s podcast “Better Etc.,” he shared, “It seems to be that what happened is that my immune system was weakened through exposures to toxins and especially to mold. There are other people in the fire academy that probably had the same exposures who aren't dealing with these exposures because their genetics are stronger, they're able to get rid of the toxins easier."

Along with testing positive for Lyme disease, Ryan also tested positive for COVID-19 and Epstein-Barr virus, a common illness that causes mononucleosis.

The daily grind of being a firefighter also didn’t help Ryan’s health. He explained, “On top of being exposed to mold, I was also dealing with these long days, with exhaustion, dehydration; all these other things that weaken your immune system. So my immune system was weakened, making it difficult to fight off infections, or what it seems like, allowing prior infections that my immune system had been able to sort of suppress and keep down, to resurface."

He said, “I now essentially have Lyme disease — it seems like something that I will always have, it's just that now I know, and I will try to build back my immune system to fight it off. And Epstein-Barr — I showed that virus, and this weakened immune system may have allowed that to come back in. On top of that, COVID, I tested positive for that."

Trista admitted, “It's been hard. It's a really difficult thing to see the person you love most in the world struggling. And he's a big, strong guy, and oof — to see him get emotional and feel hopeless, in that all I could really do is advocate for him, so that's what I did."

Before he was diagnosed, Ryan thought he may have had lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and/or lymphoma, but he was cleared.

Since his diagnosis, Sutter has been making major changes to his diet, avoiding “gluten, dairy and refined sugars” and adding “a ton more fruits and vegetables.” He elaborated, “I've gone on specific diets and things to try to alleviate a lot of those things so my internal organs can function more efficiently and begin to fight back some of these viruses and bacteria that they were able to hold back prior to going through this last year."

Sutter is doing better these days and is thankful for all the outpouring of love and support. He added, "Things are looking up."