Wisdom for Reclaiming Your Immunity: 5 Steps to Strengthen Your Body-Mind Against Invasion
Part II: Recovering from Autoimmunity, Addressing the Root Causes Contributing to Inflammation
Unfortunately, we see it in the American population; many of the conventional treatments available for autoimmune disease make people feel worse and lead to worsening symptoms and disease.
Pharmaceutical interventions, whether over the counter with anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil or doctor prescribed steroids, immune suppressants like methotrexate, and the new TNF-alpha blockers like Enbrel or Remicade, have been linked to symptoms such as intestinal bleeding, kidney failure, depression, psychosis, osteoporosis, muscle loss, and diabetes not to mention overwhelming infection and cancer. When used selectively, these drugs may help some people get their lives back on track, but they are not a long-term corrective care solution to health and wellness. In other words, they should not be the end of the treatment plan but a bridge to cool off a hyper-inflamed body while addressing inflammation and dysfunction at a root cause level.
There is another way to address autoimmune conditions that works – let me share a story of a high-functioning female client who has reversed her autoimmunity.
Reclaiming Angelique’s Immunity
A SICK CARE JOURNEY
My client Angelique ended up on a long misadventure through the conventional medical system before she ever came to see me. For years she went from practitioner to practitioner, getting all kinds of labels and treatments for her problems (including drugs and surgery)—still, no real help rooted in corrective care to successfully treat them.
This hard-working, once vital, health-minded professional woman and single parent of two beautiful children had developed a series of inflammatory conditions, including Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Fibromyalgia, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and Fatty Liver Disease.
During this time, she developed metabolic syndrome and weight gain (pre-diabetes) because of the runaway inflammation in her body. Which, over time, contributed to worsening digestive issues, increased pain, and understandably feelings of depression and self-isolation.
This, unfortunately, is all too common. My question remains the same today as it did when Angelique began working with me in 2019, “How bad did Angelique have to get before the conventionally minded stopped observing her worsening health, before intervening with something that would reverse it and help her heal, body-mind and spirit.
A WELL CARE JOURNEY
Using a functional medicine approach, a new way of thinking about imbalances and disease’s underlying causes, our work began with me asking some simple questions. After a time of getting to know Angelique’s story, the trauma and stress underpinning her ailing body, and the lay of the land that had contributed to her worsening health, we went hunting for allergens, toxins, and infections – all common causes of inflammation. Through deeper investigation and functional medicine lab testing we found the root cause factors stressing her whole-body system and the real contributors to her inflammation and symptoms. We went to work cleaning house, and I helped Angelique heal her immune system by supporting it and nourishing her, the whole person, with these five steps, strengthening the body-mind against invasion:
- clean, whole FOOD and allergen-free, anti-inflammatory NUTRITION that works for Angelique’s body-brain.
- increasing REST and improving SLEEP.
- identifying the EXERCISE and MOVEMENT appropriate for where her body is metabolically right now rather than suggesting an exhaustive fitness program that stresses and breaks the immune system down further.
- STRESS REDUCTION and SUPPLEMENTATION that supports balancing blood sugar, hormones, vitamin, and mineral deficiencies.
- last but certainly not least guiding a wellness protocol that offered space for Angelique to explore her wants, needs, and desires without shame or guilt for choosing her own body before anything or anyone else, embracing only those HELPING RELATIONSHIPS during her time of healing, beyond the one she had established with me.
For Angelique, this looked like saying good-bye to a toxic work environment and seeking new employment within a healthy organization led by humans that put people first, acknowledge loyalty, performance, and personal contribution with respect, money, and verbal validation, as well she aligned with a practitioner that could help her heal the past traumas still holding her body-mind hostage.
Angelique‘s Journey (before on the left, after on the right)
WELLNESS JOURNEY WINS
In 1/10 of the time (maybe less), that it took Angelique to become violently ill, suffering from chronic pain, and questioning whether she even wanted to keep living, Angelique reports having:
- Lost 79.5 lbs.
- Taken up hiking.
- Sleeping like a baby.
- Healthy relationship boundaries and experiencing richer connections with family and friends.
- A new position with an employer allows her more flexibility to work from home and, after asking for it, received a significant pay increase.
- Reduced thyroid medication.
- Reversed her own Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Fibromyalgia, Fatty Liver Disease, Diabetes, and Depression – naturally.
- “Having the time of her life, enjoying being herSELF, in her own body.”
Angelique’s physician reported this news to her in March 2021, which she in turn excitedly shared with me, “Your labs look good! Your A1C is AMAZING, and your liver levels are normal and better since October. Great job. YOU are proof this can be done! Keep up the good work, and I will keep a close eye on you!”
#ACTION
As we continue to traverse the immunity terrain, I will be sharing ten steps for dealing with it in a way that can help you recover from autoimmunity, strengthen your immune response system, and protect your body-mind from further attack.
Be sure to join us at our next Tea & Talk on May 18th at 7pm cst which is all about building immune health. Register here
