10 years ago, I was drowning in my never ending wave of Lupus and Hashimoto’s Disease symptoms like chronic joint pain, fatigue, exercise intolerance, hair loss, skin rashes, recurring infections, digestive problems, weight issues, migraines, the list goes on.
When I first got diagnosed with my autoimmune diseases, I felt validated and excited to finally have the right treatment plan to get better… But after years of cycling through what felt like every medication on the market, I began to realize that my healing journey was quite the opposite.
Instead of healing and getting my body back, I was slowly getting worse. Day by day, I’d wake up in more pain and wonder how I was going to make it through the day. I was scared. I was hopeless. And I lived with this overwhelming shame that I couldn’t consistently show up for friends, family, and work. If you’re here, I am sure you know exactly how this feels. I had completely lost hope in my body’s ability to heal.
But what are we supposed to do? I was willing to try anything with my conventional doctor until the day he told me my body was a “ticking time bomb” and suggested chemotherapy to avoid going into a coma. This was the day that my instinctual alarm bells went off and screamed that there had to be a better way.
Luckily, there was. This rock bottom moment led me down a beautiful path of research that has completely shifted my perspective on autoimmune healing. I learned that the conventional approach to treat autoimmunity is OUTDATED and that you CAN heal your autoimmune disease symptoms naturally by targeting the root cause. Now, I’m on a mission to share my knowledge and story so YOU can heal too. Here’s what got me started:
1. I Discovered my Silent Food Sensitivities
I’m a southern girl, so it’s no surprise that I grew up on comfort foods like Chicken & Dumplings, Mac & Cheese, Biscuits & Gravy, Fried Chicken, the list goes on.
Now, we all know southern comfort foods aren’t at the top of the health food list, but I had no idea that health went way beyond what we see on the scale. I was completely shocked to learn that despite my active lifestyle and fit figure, many of the foods I loved eating were poisoning me, little by little each day.
This is because I had loads of silent food sensitivities. Put simply, these are a step below food allergies. They still cause an immune response and inflammatory reaction in the body, but not usually severe enough to cause visible or fatal symptoms, hence why I call them “silent.”
Through muscle testing (a gentle, biochemical kinesiology method), I learned that I was sensitive to wheat, gluten, dairy, soy, corn, sugar, processed foods, artificial sweeteners, and eggs. This means that every single time I consumed any of these ingredients, it sent off inflammatory alarm bells in my body. In small quantities, this really isn’t too big of a deal. However, I was eating these foods ALL the time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
So instead of taking in the food, breaking it down, absorbing its vitamins & minerals, and sending the rest out through the colon, my body was basically looking at these foods screaming “what the heck do we do?!” Lol. It sounds dramatic, but this is essentially exactly what’s going on.
When our body registers ingested food as “foreign” and doesn’t know how to process it, our immune system turns on (*hello inflammation!*). Once I removed my food triggers and started eating an anti-inflammatory diet that supported my healing, my autoimmune symptoms began to disappear, one by one!
2. I Healed my Leaky Gut with the 4R Method
I’m sure you've heard of leaky gut syndrome with all the hype it’s getting on the internet, but did you know it can be the very reason we get such large inflammatory reactions to foods?
Basically when our body can’t properly digest the foods we eat, it leaves particles in the gut that damage our healthy gut bacteria and the lining of our intestines. Again, in tiny quantities this really isn’t a big deal, but over time in large quantities, the lining of your intestines will literally break apart. This allows damaging food particles and toxins to leak out into your bloodstream. From there, these particles can go anywhere.
Obviously, these particles aren’t supposed to be in our bloodstream, so our immune system (*hello inflammation*) turns on and does everything it can to clean things up. If this happens every day at every meal, then I‘m sure you can imagine how overwhelmed our immune system becomes. This is the point that my body went absolutely haywire and started attacking itself (*hello autoimmune diseases*).
The 4R Method is my favorite way to tackle leaky gut syndrome (AKA intestinal permeability). It focuses on 4 stages: Remove, Replace, Reinoculate, and Repair.
First, it was essential that I completely removed my food sensitivities and triggers so that my body had more energy to heal. Next, I focused on replacing inflammatory foods with anti-inflammatory ones. For me, that meant focusing on getting tons of nourishment from foods like leafy green vegetables, berries, nuts, seeds, omega-3 fatty acids, and healthy proteins.
Then it was time to reinoculate my healthy gut microbiome with nourishing foods, digestive enzymes, and live probiotics from real foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, and probiotic rich coconut yogurt. With time and additional supplements like L Glutamine, my leaky gut repaired itself and my symptoms continued to disappear, one by one!
3. I Learned to Regulate my Nervous System
Foods aren’t the only thing that affects our immune system. Our nervous system plays a huge role too! If we are consistently dysregulated or silently stuck in “fight or flight” mode, our bodies’ natural healing capabilities are turned off and our overactive immune system gets turned on (*hello again inflammation*). I say “silently stuck” because unfortunately many of us are so used to chaos, stress, and dysregulation that it has become our norm.
Do you ever wonder why sitting in silence or being alone with your thoughts is uncomfortable? Or why you constantly need to be doing something to feel fulfilled? Or why you can never seem to get your anxious thoughts to settle down? This is an indicator that your comfort zone is chaos and that your nervous system wants to stay stuck in fight or flight.
This concept was super foreign to me and took me a long time to take seriously until I read the books How to Do the Work by the Holistic Psychologist Dr. Nicole Lepra and The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. If you are struggling with autoimmunity and chronic inflammation, I highly recommend reading these books even if you think your nervous system is regulated.
I’ve tried many things to help me regulate and it’s best to find what works for YOU and your body, but my favorites are EFT tapping, deep belly breathing, restorative movement like yoga and stretching, journaling, chakra healing, and supplements like adaptogens and Magnesium CALM.
4. I Removed Toxins & Pathogens from My Body
You may hear doctors tell you that we don’t need to detox because our livers and kidneys do it for us, but what they don’t talk about is just how many toxins we are truly exposed to everyday. We are living in a completely different world than our ancestors used to. I don’t mean to scare you when I say this, but exposure to these toxins is inevitable. They are everywhere and hide in the water we drink, food we eat, and air we breathe.
Yes, our bodies are extremely intelligent and CAN detox on their own, but only to a certain capacity. If your detox pathways are clogged or overwhelmed, not only can these toxins damage your kidneys and liver, but they can wreak havoc on your entire immune system and body too (*well well, hello again inflammation & autoimmunity).
If I tried to write about every single environmental toxin, we’d be here for ages, so let’s just look at a few: glyphosate, heavy metals, and parasites.
Glyphosate: We spray millions of tons of this on our food to kill weeds & insects to the point where most of us literally eat glyphosate for breakfast. Not only has this chemical been found to cause leaky gut, but it has also been shown to increase risk of cancer. It’s most notably found in our wheat, corn, soy, oats, soil, and drinking water.
Heavy metals: When not eliminated effectively, heavy metals get stored in our muscle tissue, organs, and brain. Even low levels of heavy metal toxicity has been linked to neurological and organ damage. These are most notably found in our air, tap water, and food.
Parasites: Yup. Real worms. Unfortunately, this isn’t just a pet issue. It’s estimated that over half of the world population has parasites. Most countries (besides the United States) acknowledge the need for yearly parasite cleanses because of how easily parasites can transfer to humans. Not only do they feed on our bodies and food, but they excrete additional toxins when they defecate as well. If you have pets, walk barefoot, eat sushi, eat unwashed produce, or have never dewormed yourself before, you should probably consider a parasite cleanse.
I know, this all sounds gross, but better out than in! I can’t begin to tell you how different I felt after removing these toxins! My senses improved, my memory improved, I had way more energy, and my eye color even lightened up!
5. I Didn’t Try to Heal Alone
Healing the root cause of inflammation and autoimmune diseases is like peeling back layers of an onion. It’s unfortunately not as easy as popping a pill or two and hoping for the best.
There are tons of great books, resources, podcasts, etc. out there to aid in your healing journey, but I still 100% recommend getting support by a healthcare team for a couple of reasons: to heal the root cause effectively and faster and to receive continuous emotional support.
As a health coach, I help walk people through the entire process of not only building nourishing habits that heal but also exactly how to pinpoint the root cause of YOUR symptoms. You see, no healing journey is one-size-fits-all, so it’s vital you are supported by someone who can point you in a wide variety of directions such as root cause testing, emotional regulation, environmental toxin removal, pinpointing food sensitivities, habit building, spiritual and emotional healing, etc.
It’s also absolutely vital to have support and accountability from someone who understands what you are going through even if you have a good support system at home. Healing journeys take time and can have many bumps in the road. Without professional support, it’s easy to become discouraged or emotionally drained, leading to burn out and falling off treatment plans. With continuous support by someone like a health coach, you’ll have the tools you need to blast through mindset blocks, lack of motivation, or health-related emotional distress like anxiety and overwhelm.
I love my healthcare team and hope you consider establishing one as well! My favorite professionals for this healing journey are Functional/Integrative Medicine Physicians, Autoimmune-Informed Health Coaches (like me 😉), Chiropractors, and Counselors.
If you’re struggling with persistent autoimmune symptoms and are ready to finally heal the root cause, I’d love to hear from you! Let’s discuss your health goals and how I may be able to help over a free 30-minute clarity call. Apply now and let’s get you feeling right again!
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