Is it Possible to Thrive with Autoimmune Issues?

When I was a child, I had a pediatrician I loved. Her name was Dr. Valencia, and she was the sweetest and most opinionated little Filipina lady you could ever meet. She saw me through my problems with asthma and allergies, and was probably credited with saving my life a time or two. Every time I went in to see her, she would sit behind her desk and lean back and talk to me like she had all the time in the world.

“Listen to your mother,” she demanded over and over. “You’ll regret it if you don’t listen to your parents.”

After puberty when I began to have the symptoms of autoimmune problems, she had no idea what was wrong with me. And since we were in a small rural community, pretty far away from any city of any size, there wasn’t anyone she could send me to in order to get to the bottom of it. So she did her best to treat my symptoms. And though she couldn’t diagnose what was ailing me, her care went a long way in seeing me through.

As a young adult, after moving to a city, I was able to be diagnosed and treated for ulcerative colitis. I respected and trusted my gastroenterologist. Dr. Subler followed all the traditional protocols of lots of procedures and tests and medications as treatment for this autoimmune disease, but I lived with the less than ideal results because I liked him. I would come into his office, and he would sit and talk to me about life. We would share what we were going through. He always cared about what I was experiencing and wanted to alleviate any suffering I was having. I never doubted that for a second.

After Dr. Subler moved away, I had two more gastroenterologists I loved. They cared about me, they did their best, and I trusted them.

Unfortunately, they both left the practice as well. And I entered the decade of my pregnancies, which for me caused my ulcerative colitis to all but disappear. If I began to have problems, after a little research and a few supplements and diet and lifestyle changes, I seemed to have everything under control. I thought I had figured out the cure, and I was set for life.

But my success didn’t last. When the positive effects of reproduction began to wear off a few years ago, I went back in search of a doctor. Because that’s what you do. But I found in the years I’d been having babies, things had begun to change in the world of specialists. I was suddenly in a production line of patients, being pushed through a factory-like list of procedures. When I would try to discuss the realities of autoimmune disease and the fact that medications and tests don’t work, I would be quickly dismissed or lectured at. When I would put off making appointments, I would get a letter saying I was being dismissed as a patient for not following the will of the doctor. Disheartened, I went my own way to take on the responsibility of autoimmune disease on my own, as so many like me have done.

Autoimmune disease is hard. It’s hard to figure out what to do, because what might work at one point may not work again in the future. And there are so many variables that we have no personal control over, like the weather or stress or environment. We can do everything right, and yet still suffer.

My symptoms intensified in the past couple years, and dragging my feet all the way, I went back to the doctor at the urging of my husband. I found a wonderful GP, actually a friend from church going all the way back to our teenage years. And once again I was sitting in the room with a doctor who truly cared, who wanted to help, who didn’t mind sitting and listening and taking her time to carefully decide how to proceed. She sent me to a new gastroenterologist we both hoped would be a better fit than the last one.

In July of last year, I called to make the first appointment. I waited two months to actually see the doctor. When I arrived in her office, I was greeted by an unfamiliar doctor, a young man who told me it was his first day as an intern. He was friendly enough, but he simply read through a list of questions. He went to confer with the doctor, who literally stepped into the examination room for five minutes. She gave me a checklist of tests that she would be performing that I should schedule, and brushed off my concerns about my inability to prepare for one of them. She was gone in a flurry of white.

Months went by as I waited for the tests she wanted done. (One of them was canceled once because she was taking a vacation to Europe.) In the end, by December, I had finally completed them (and was completely right about my inability to adequately be prepared for one of them, through no lack of trying.) Her verdict was sent to me via email. I was to take meds (that I had already told her I don’t see any results from.) She would no longer be seeing me (no explanation given) and suggested I call three other doctors for further treatment.

If this wasn’t discouraging enough, the bills from the two procedures she had prescribed (that she had barely addressed the results of) ended up costing us over $1000 after insurance paid all they were of a mind to pay.

And I was back at square one, with no improvement in my health after six months of pursuing traditional medical help.

Why do I tell my story? Because I hate doctors and the medical field and believe that we should depend completely on herbs and oils and vegetables for our health? Not at all. I still have had far more experience with caring people in the medical field than I have had negative. And beyond that, I’ve gone the other way and went to an integrative doctor who tried to treat my problems through supplements and diet changes, and though I did everything she instructed over a period of several years, I saw very little improvement in my health. And the reality was that insurance didn’t like paying for her services, either.

So what’s the answer for those of us with bodies who can’t seem to tolerate life? Who have conflicting health concerns that sometimes make us feel as if we are going completely crazy? Are there any solid answers for living with autoimmune conditions?

I’m not claiming to have any concrete answers that will change our lives. I think part of having an autoimmune disease is coming to the conclusion that our lives will always be more difficult than others’.

We will not be able to do it all. We will have to rest, stay home, be still, avoid stress and eat a strict diet.

We will have to learn to depend on our own good choices and research. We will have to find out, by trial and error, what helps and what makes no difference.

We will have to be disciplined to keep our bodies in shape even when the thought of moving makes us want to cry.

We will have to patient when flares interrupt our plans, our dreams, and cause us to disappoint those we love.

We will have to find something greater to live for than health. We will have to learn to smile and move on when others tell us we just aren’t trying hard enough, or we are unwilling to be helped.

This life is hard. Autoimmune disease is one way the darkness of this world is revealed. Our world and our bodies are wearing out. We are beginning to understand the verse in the Bible that says all of creation is groaning, waiting for God to make everything right.

But that being said, we can persevere. Autoimmune disease is no excuse to curl up in a ball and give up on everything. Pressing against adversity is what makes us stronger, both mentally and physically. Our despair shouldn’t go on continually or become a habit. At some point we must pick ourselves up, claim God’s promises that he will sustain us and accomplish his purposes for us, and we must go on and defy the odds.

Some practical advice that is likely to do some amount of good: 

Eat God made foods. 

Eat in balance. 

Take rests from eating.

Drink water. 

Be in the sunlight and fresh air as much as you can. 

Move every day, and increase the intensity of your movement little by little. 

Find your passion. 

Be still and hear God’s voice, and tell him your every thought and feeling. 

Rest. 

Find ways to declutter your schedule and have more down time. 

Enjoy relationships and pursue what is inspiring. 

Make deliberate steps to avoid the stress and chaos of this overcomplicated and greedy society. 

Live for others. 

Show compassion and mercy. 

Wherever you are, ask what you can do to improve it.

Autoimmune disease probably won’t be cured without an act of God. But we can learn to exist anyway. To fully live. Don’t let it be an excuse that causes you to give up or become bitter.

What about you? Do you have any ways of coping with autoimmune problems? Have you found anything that helps? Share in the comments. And thank you for reading! I pray God’s best for you in this new year!

Is Autoimmune Protocol really for Me?

If you have followed this blog for a while, you know that sometimes I post about health issues and answers. There have been times before when I thought I had found all the answers and would never have to struggle with autoimmune disease again. I've come to a more realistic outlook, seeing that these struggles have a way of returning. That being said, I think I've made a breakthrough.

I am coming out of my blogging hiatus because my health is in the process of turning around, and that's worth mentioning. It's also worth providing information to others who may be in need of the same answers. It's not an easy answer, but my goal is to make it simple and straightforward for you.

By you, I mean those of you who struggle with autoimmune disease. Rheumatoid Arthritis, Crohns, Ulcerative Colitis, Lupus, MS, Hashimoto's or Grave's, Psoriasis, Type 1 Diabetes, and many, many other disorders that plague so many of the modern population. Those of you who have seen multiple doctors over a period of years and have had no answers or long-term solutions to the symptoms that cripple you. I know you well, because I'm one of you.

This has been my life since childhood. As an ophthalmologist told me several years ago when he saw me for a recurring case of iritis, "You have to be really careful, because your body wants to be in a constant state of inflammation." And it's true. No matter what I've done, from gluten free to paleo to THM to keto, I can't seem to stay on top of my health for long. 

It's the most frustrating dilemma I've ever faced. I know what it's like to deny yourself most of the food everyone around you is eating, to walk and work out to the point of exhaustion, and still have the scale creep up on me or the symptoms return out of nowhere and knock me over again.

It would be easy to give up.

For years, I have had the recurring thought that this all must come from one place. All these symptoms, all these different diseases and syndromes must have a common source. That's why it frustrated me so much to go to doctors, because the current medical protocol for autoimmune disease is simply to visit many different doctors who prescribe medicine for the vast array of symptoms. Alternately, you might be offered immunosuppressant drugs which come with a whole new set of side-effects and concerns. Neither of these solutions were acceptable to me. But I didn't know where else to turn. I had even been seeing an integrative doctor for several years, but it was almost the opposite of the traditional medical approach. She overwhelmed me with information to the point where I couldn't wade through the mud to find the answers I was hoping she'd give. She definitely never told me simply that I have an out of control autoimmune response, and that there is a simple approach to heal it and move on with your life. An approach I can revisit anytime I need to do so. 

I just happened to hear about Kelly Clarkson losing weight recently and claiming that she didn't do anything but eliminate a few foods from her diet, and that her autoimmune issues had been resolved. I didn't believe it was quite that easy, but I researched the book she had read, called The Plant Paradox.

It seemed a little fantastic, but I grabbed on to one aspect of it that made sense to my brain. Plants have chemicals that resist being eaten under certain conditions. And if your system is already a train wreck, this chemical (called a lectin) will easily send you spiraling. So I made a note of the things I was eating that would have a high amount of lectins, like tomatoes and peppers, and I stopped eating them to see what happened.

Never one to under-do anything, I kept researching and eventually came to the Autoimmune Protocol. It was somewhat related to Plant Paradox, only way more involved. I had heard of AIP before, but I'd never been willing to take a closer look because it sounded SO. HARD.

I'm not going to sugar coat it (because sugar is on the no list!) because you need to be prepared for the truth. Autoimmune Protocol IS hard. When you first start it, it seems impossible. Your body, while suffering under the effects of many foods, demands those very foods and craves them and makes your life miserable when you stop eating them.

Here's the thing. If you want to be able to live your life without autoimmune responses or the side-effects of drugs, this is the end of the road. It's this, or survival mode. And who really wants to live long-term in survival mode? And while it is hard at first, after two or three weeks, your body accepts it. Calms down. Starts to feel better. And at that point, you realize it wasn't really you saying you could never eliminate so many things from your diet. It was the addiction you had to foods that were hurting you. Consider this approach rehab. You will feel better eventually.

I'm planning a couple more posts. One will be an introduction to AIP. I intend to make these posts easy to follow. I'm not going to get into complicated science and explanation. From what I've found, that's the only information available on the subject. I will bring it home, and only tell you what you need to know. You're busy. You have a life. You don't want this to become all you think about or do. So I'll make it simple. What do you have to change? What do you need to eat? 

The second post will be the recipes that have saved my life and helped me persevere through the hardest part. I will share the snacks and meals that have settled my cravings and helped me realize there is good food apart from junk and convenience food.

Bottom line - how does an average person survive AIP? Truth be told, we may start out average, but when you make a decision to go off the beaten path and do something very few are willing to do, you're making a choice that could benefit you for the rest of your life. Just like Robert Frost said:

How I Conquered IBD - An Introduction

I've had Ulcerative Colitis for a long time. My symptoms started when I was 13, 26 years ago. It would be another 6 years until I was diagnosed. Even then, it didn't take long for me to realize that no one understands Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Of the six gastroenterologists I was treated by over a 25-year period, most of them caring people whom I enjoyed interacting with, all of them had almost identical plans of action.

Meds. Tests. More meds. More tests. LOTS of appointments.

I went along with this for much longer than I felt I should. My intuition began to assure me every time I went to see them I was wasting my time. Because every medicine they insisted I needed to function in society did nothing for my colitis. Many times, it made it worse. All times, it made ME worse, by side effects and an undeniable emotional toll.

The last specialist I saw, four years ago, was not a nice and caring person like the others. He was abrasive, inattentive and arrogant. I already knew all the medicines he wanted to try would not work. I explained I could not tolerate medicines and asked him what I could change about my lifestyle and diet to control the symptoms and hopefully cause a remission. I had noticed that my UC went away during pregnancy and breastfeeding, and it had given me the idea that if I changed my body chemistry in some way, I might be able to control the disease naturally.

He told me, flat out, that it was impossible. I could do my own research, but I would be wasting my time. I left his office very discouraged. After three months, I received a letter saying that he was refusing to treat me because I had not made another appointment and so I was being considered an irresponsible patient.

My discouragement turned to indignation. What had he offered me that I should be excited about going back to his office? It seemed like his goal was to make sure he had enough patients walking through the door to make money, not making sure those patients were able to conquer their disease and live a normal life. 

And so I became my own advocate. I researched, scouring the internet for information about treating ulcerative colitis naturally. It was hard to come by. UC and Crohn's are notoriously hard to manage. But finally, I came across an obscure little article, written by a natural doctor in medical language that was admittedly very hard to read. It was an article on how to treat UC with supplements and diet. I didn't understand all of it, but I wrote down every supplement and how much I was supposed to take, jotted down each piece of advice concerning diet and exercise, and from that moment on made it my new lifestyle.

I have been in remission for almost all of the past four years, starting TWO WEEKS after I found that article. The only flare-up of UC I have had was related to the additive "carageenan" in my almond milk. As soon as I stopped drinking that brand, I was back in remission. I have learned more since then, and added other measures to my way of life that keep me from sinking back to where I once was, and I have been able to address other autoimmune issues and metabolism issues in my body, and as a result I have come to a place where I am almost at peace with my body, feeling good more days than I don't, having energy to do the things I want to do and need to do as a busy homeschooling mom and a writer.

It's time for me to share my story. Others are probably out there, being told time after time that it is impossible for them to manage their own disease. Suffering on meds, having tests that drain the life out of them and come at risk. I don't want anyone to have to live that way. So I'm telling you exactly what I did to conquer IBD. I'll be as brief as possible. I'll use language anyone can understand, even scared 13 year olds who have just started having symptoms or have been newly diagnosed.

You can conquer this disease, and the emotional toil that goes along with it in many cases. You can feel better on a long-term basis. It will involve some trial and error and a few different supplements, but in this day and age, they are easy to obtain.

Chances are, I will eventually publish a short book on this subject, going into a little more detail. It's a passion of mine to help others know they can take charge of their own health in cases where our medical system comes up short. For those of us living with autoimmune diseases, often our best course of action is a complete lifestyle change, and an adjustment in our thinking. It won't be easy.

But it's possible. More to come.