Autoimmune Adventures

How much of your physical ailments is due to emotional stress, and what can you do about it? When it comes to taking back our power over health and well-being, some of the most exciting research comes from epigenetics and energy medicine. Epigenetics looks at the many factors that influence the expression of genes, including our thoughts and emotions. Many modalities of energy healing help us shift our thoughts and emotions so that we can positively influence our gene expression, leading to swifter healing. One of those modalities is Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). Dawson Church joins me on this episode to talk about how EFT actually works to provide benefit with many physical ailments, including autoimmune disorders. Epigenetics influences us in every moment, and the environment, including emotions from present and past traumas, has an immediate impact on how our bodies respond at the level of our genes. EFT helps us quickly dissipate the emotion. Dawson leads a short exercise similar to EFT to help experience this shift with a recent difficult memory. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

If you have a chronic illness, you’re may experience numerous physical and emotional consequences, from physical pain and discomfort to anxiety about your body and the future to a loss of confidence in yourself. Practicing meditation regularly can help alleviate physical symptoms as well as restore a sense of internal calm and peace regardless of what is happening. Meditation teacher Mary Meckley explains how starting a very simple and short daily meditation practice can provide benefits such as better sleep, lower inflammation, responding better to stress, and increased self-confidence. Included is a simple meditation you can do anywhere, even in the midst of your day, to quickly and effectively calm down. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

When does a healing protocol become unhealthy? There can be a fine line, as you take actions to promote healing, between when those actions support healing and when they start to detract from it. If you’ve ever started to see a food as “bad” or become obsessed about what you can (or can’t) do, had emotions such as fear, shame, and guilt accompany your choices, or let your healing protocol interfere with relationships, you may recognize this line. Health coach Angie Alt joins me this episode to talk about how to notice when the actions you take or your mindset about those actions starts to become unhealthy, and how to bring more balance back into your journey, ensuring that it truly is supporting you to heal. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

What role do commitment, perfectionism, and shame play in healing? Self-love and self-care might be the most important factors in promoting healing, and yet are often difficult for people to tackle. Whether you’re a Type A personality, a natural caregiver, or simply raised in a culture where you are taught to put everyone and everything ahead of you and your health, truly shifting your lifestyle to incorporate self-care can be a steep learning curve. Jen Wittman joins us this episode to help illuminate how to emerge from perfectionism and shame and take your healing into your own hands. With both personal and professional experience and expertise in thyroid issues, Jen shares her own story and a healthy dose of humor to inspire you to amp up your emotional well-being.  Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

How do the daily choices you make directly impact your health? With any chronic illness, you are likely to encounter recommendations for dietary and lifestyle changes to improve your condition. Yet what’s the basis for those recommendations, and how do those actions actually impact the cells in the body to create the effect you would like? Dr. Sarah Ballantyne returns to the show to discuss the science (again so us non-science folks can understand it!) behind some of the dietary and lifestyle recommendations made in the Paleo Approach. In the previous episode with Sarah, we discussed the inner workings of the immune system. This time, we expand the discussion to link the macro level of choices we make about food, sleep, stress, and exercise with the micro level of what research suggests happens in the body as a result. Grasping the connection between your choices and your health can provide needed motivation to continue creating a healthier lifestyle. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

What is happening in the body with autoimmune disease? Understanding what is going on in the immune system with autoimmune disease helps us appreciate the steps we can take to support healing. Sarah Ballantyne, scientist and a leading proponent of the Paleo lifestyle, explains the incredible complexity of the immune system and the imbalances that lead to autoimmune disease in an easy-to-comprehend manner, even if your last biology experience was in high school! Learn the key players in the immune system that lead to autoimmune disease and how the intricate dance among them creates either health or illness. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

What role does emotion play in chronic illness? Culture encourages us to disassociate mind from body, and many of us live most of our lives in our head. The consequence can be an imbalance in our emotions, which results in symptoms in the body. Psychologist and coach Kyle Davies talks about a more recent understanding of emotion that overturns the previous incomplete ideas about what it is and how it works. When we understand that symptoms we experience are feedback from the body, we can unblock emotional flow and live more authentically. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

What dietary factors play a role in chronic pain and inflammation? Many people with autoimmune disorders deal with chronic pain daily. Chiropractor Dr. Daniel Twogood joins us to share how to shift your mindset about what causes chronic pain and disease and how to go about removing the foods that are contributing to inflammation in your body. Based on his thirty years of working with patients to relieve chronic pain and inflammation, Dr. Twogood presents his list of substances to eliminate as well as how to adapt it for your own particular health situation. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

How does your attitude affect your health? With a history of challenging health issues including epilepsy as a child and multiple sclerosis, Mary Ellen Ciganovich has learned the importance of attitude to positively shift well-being. How you take your diagnosis and how you treat yourself even on your most difficult days both impact the way you move forward. Mary Ellen shares tips about living well with a chronic illness, becoming aware of your attitudes and those of the people around you, and a simple action plan to follow that will help you be healthier. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

Returning guest Mickey Trescott joins us to share an action plan for recovering from autoimmune disorders, focusing on a do-it-yourself approach that takes into account the key areas that make the most impact on your health. Mickey outlines some of the steps that helped her recover for those embarking on their own healing journey. Addressing the areas of diet, critical lifestyle changes, and working with medical professionals, this action plan gives you what you need to begin to improve your health today. A continuum of dietary changes from removing gluten to a full elimination diet can begin your recovery. Managing stress in your life, improving your sleep, and incorporating more movement strengthen your ability to heal. Finally, finding the right medical professional to guide you through any testing and medications you need provides important support to get to the underlying causes. Most important is to assess where you are in each area and decide on the goals that will work for you. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

Energy medicine provides powerful yet simple tools to help heal yourself of illness. Psychotherapist and Eden Energy Practitioner Mikel Carmon illuminates the important relationship between the triple warmer and spleen meridians for people with autoimmunity and other chronic illnesses. When triple warmer is continually turned on through stress, it takes energy from spleen and the rest of the meridian system. Healing the relationship between these two critical meridians can create a healthier balance in the overall system. Mikel shares how language affects these two systems and specific, simple, and quick exercises that you can do to calm the triple warmer and strengthen spleen. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

How is the balance of bacteria in your gut impacting your health, and what can you do about it? Fermented foods offer a low-impact and relatively safe way to affect the balance of bacteria in your gut. Bacteria impact digestion and help to modulate the immune system, a significant portion of which is in the digestive tract. Imbalances in the microbiome can have far-reaching affects on health. Nutritionist Sarah Ramsden, creator of the Fearless Fermentation series, shares how to overcome the barriers to making and eating fermented foods and the benefits of eating more of them. Sarah offers a simple action plan to incorporate fermented foods into your diet that will have you healing your microbiome through enjoying your childhood favorites. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

When you find yourself in times of uncertainty, as you will if you are on a healing journey, you might notice an abundance of questions. How you question has a lot to do with whether you sabotage your inward journey or dive deeper into it. Are you seeking answers or are you seeking you? On this episode explore the types of key questions that support the unfolding of your process, interrupt the mental structures you’ve created, and generate new possibilities your life. Learn how to live these questions through bringing certain qualities to your experience, exploring the questions in a way that works for you, and bringing them into your daily life. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator/host of Autoimmune Adventures

Are you listening to your body or at war with it? Many (if not most) people have an abundance of judgments about their body. With chronic illness, you may notice even more judgments about yourself and your body that contribute to dis-ease and disharmony. When immersed in judgment it can feel impossible to emerge, but when you get out of conclusion and into question, you can create a relationship with your body based on harmony, joy, and ease. In this episode, Blossom Benedict shares how to create communion with your body and shift out of diagnoses and judgments. We discuss the specific questions to ask and concrete tools so you can learn to listen to your body and collaborate with it instead of managing or controlling it. In using these questions and tools, you increase your awareness of what’s true for you and your body. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

How do toxic chemicals affect autoimmune disorders and what can you do to protect yourself?  Around 87,000 chemicals are currently in commercial use, and very few of them have been studied with regard to their impact on health. Yet the evidence is growing that many of these chemicals, such as Bisphenal A (BPA), phthalates, and heavy metals, have a negative affect on the human body, and may contribute to autoimmune disorders.  Dr. Aly Cohen, rheumatologist and environmental health specialist, explains how these chemicals can enter the body, and some of the havoc they can inflict once there. We explore both how to minimize exposure to these toxins and how certain foods can help the body eliminate them. Dr. Cohen also explains her take on the current fad of detoxing and the importance and value of a lifestyle based approach. Learn key doable steps that you can implement immediately to avoid chemicals and support your health and environment. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

Different approaches can offer new perspectives on healing autoimmunity. Acupuncturist and herbalist Anne Angelone shares ideas from both Chinese Medicine and Functional Medicine. From the inner tradition of Chinese Medicine comes the idea of medicine as an aid to spiritual evolution and the importance of looking at what you are identified with. Functional Medicine brings in the physical testing to find and address underlying causes. Practical tips include using breath to regulate chi and use the autoimmune protocol to address nutritional imbalances and help heal the gut and mucosal immunity. Anne shares her own personal experience of struggling with undiagnosed ankylosing spondylitis and what has helped in her healing journey. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

What don’t you know? How do you respond when in uncertainty and not knowing? When you are on the healing journey, unknowns abound, bringing up fear and discomfort. When instead of going into your habitual responses, you can let not knowing open you up, you can learn to bring spaciousness and excitement to uncertainty. Learn the common patterns to being in uncertainty and tips to help you thrive in not knowing what’s to come. When you can learn to thrive in uncertainty, you enhance your healing journey. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator/host of Autoimmune Adventures

What steps do you take when the medical bills are piled high? Certified Financial Planner Candice McGarvey returns to share tips on the practical and logistical steps to take to begin digging yourself out of a financial hole. Understanding the medical billing system, making calls to providers, and creating a plan to make payments all help minimize the damage of unpaid bills. Candice also covers what types of accounts might be helpful, getting insurance through the Affordable Care Act, and the importance of becoming an educated consumer of healthcare. Find your financial footing again! Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator and host of Autoimmune Adventures

How do you emotionally handle financial difficulties due to a chronic illness? Candice McGarvey, a Certified Financial Planner and financial coach whose baby was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, joins host Julie Stiles to share how to cope emotionally with financial fallout. Essential principles are to acknowledge when you cannot deal with medical bills (and that this is ok), seek support through an advocate, be aware of your emotional triggers and know how to take care of yourself when they arise. Even in financial fallout you can shift your relationship with money and increase your financial wellness. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! 

This installment of the series on transformation continues the theme of letting go. Episode 26 outlined a framework for letting go, but sometimes it proves to be difficult to let go of patterns of belief and identity that have defined your life. Learn four methods that can help you loosen the pattern and shift your relationship to it. These methods include to learn from it, choose to let go (for this moment), apply lessons from when letting go is easy, and find what you are letting go into. Letting go of what isn’t working allows you to consciously create your future. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator/host of Autoimmune Adventures

How do you manage challenging health issues while raising a family? Katie Cleary, founder of autoimmunemom.com, joins host Julie Stiles to share her experience and wisdom from five years of raising young kids while managing multiple autoimmune conditions. Diagnosed during her second pregnancy, Katie’s health challenges made adjusting to another child in the family difficult, especially since it took years before she understood what was happening and what changes she needed to make to support her health. On this episode we talk about practical ways to balance your self-care with running a household, how to communicate with your family about your limitations, and finding support when the going gets rough. Katie also shares important advice for women with autoimmunity who want to get pregnant. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you!

What is holding you back from moving into the life that is waiting for you? Letting go allows you to set down any internal or external aspects of your life that are no longer serving you so that you can step into the new unencumbered by the past. You might decide to let go of beliefs about yourself, expectations, ideas about health and illness, and roles and identities that no longer fit. Host Julie Stiles explores the ways that people hold on physically, mentally, and emotionally, and how to take what you want to let go of into the body, mind, and emotions to help release it. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator/host of Autoimmune Adventures

Choosing to eat foods that nourish the body is a key way to support yourself on the healing journey. The Autoimmune Protocol is an elimination diet based on the Paleo diet that is intended to lessen autoimmune reactions. Mickey Trescott, author of The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook and blogger at autoimmune-paleo.com, shares her experience using this diet to support her healing after diagnosis with Celiac and Hashimoto’s. We discuss some common problems people encounter following this strict diet and how to be successful integrating it into your lifestyle even if you have limited time, money, or energy. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com. Support the show by subscribing in iTunes and leaving a review. Thank you! Julie Stiles, creator/host of Autoimmune Adventures.

How can you better manage stress in order to heal? Dr. Kathy Gruver returns to Autoimmune Adventures to discuss the stress response. With stress the underlying cause for more than half of doctor visits and a primary cause of flares in people with autoimmunity, it constitutes a significant health problem, yet is one that each of us has some power over. When we can use the wide variety of mind-body practices available to us to manage our reaction to stressful life events, we can tap into the relaxation response and allow the body to heal. Kathy, who is the author of Conquer Your Stress with Mind/Body Techniques, covers when stress becomes a problem and top techniques to counteract it. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com.

What role does (and should) alternative medicine have in healing? Many people with chronic illness look to alternative approaches when conventional medicine offers few good options. With so many alternatives to choose from, it can be daunting to decide what to try. Dr. Kathy Gruver, trained in many alternative modalities, shares her thoughts on how to choose modalities and practitioners, the role of alternative medicine in relation to conventional, and the importance of vetting any approach you are thinking of incorporating in your healing journey. Kathy also shares her views on health and healing, and two keys that are essential for the healing path. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com.

How can you increase your well being through balancing satisfaction in all areas of your life? Research shows that overall well being is not just about physical health. Instead, it is closely tied to how you are doing in all areas of your life. All aspects of your life are interdependent, and how you feel about any one can affect how you are doing in general.  When you are aware of those areas that you feel unhappy about, it opens the possibility of taking new action to increase your satisfaction in that area. General well being expands as you take steps toward contentment in each area. Explore how you are doing in different areas of your life and how you can amplify your well being. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com.

The call to adventure that begins the transformative path happens in the context of your life, and this episode teases out some of the key components that you might begin to see in a new way. This new awareness can be difficult because it often reveals aspects of your life that are not working; you see the truth. Yet this awareness is key to begin the process of detachment so you can let go and move forward in the growth process. You might begin to see your life history, personality, and physical or psychological challenges and potentials in a new way based on the new information from the call to adventure. Similarly, you might begin to question aspects of your current life situation, such as your job, home, and relationships, as well as your current environment, as you become aware of how they are not serving you. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com.

Diagnosed with myasthenia gravis when she was 22, Courtney underwent treatment that ultimately made her illness worse. As part of her healing journey, she produced the documentary film Beauty Does Lie: The Untold Stories of Autoimmune Diseases. After becoming suicidal due to complications from medications and her illness, Courtney decided to stop taking medication and use diet, yoga, and meditation to try to heal. In this episode, we discuss her journey, what she learned in the making of her film, and her current approach to healing. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com.

Why are rates of autoimmune diseases, allergies, and asthma increasing? Moises Velasquez-Manoff, author of An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases, discusses the intriguing theory explaining the rise of immune dysfunction. Linking the inner and outer ecosystem, the macro of our body with the micro world of parasites and microbes, this theory begins to expand our understanding of how the immune system works. Learn why biodiversity is good for your health, how autoimmune genes might have been beneficial, new metaphors for the immune system that go beyond warfare, and where science is with the fringe treatments that emerge from this theory. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com.

How can you increase your resilience? When you are resilient, you can be in adversity and integrate all that happens. It’s a skill you can continually develop by making choices every day that build resilience. Seeing the challenges, finding meaning, escaping from victim thinking, and focusing on strengths and times you’ve grown from hardship in the past are a few ways of increasing your resilience. How to use positive emotions and connection to community are also covered. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com.

The integral model provides a framework to understand illness and healing and create a well-rounded healthcare plan that takes into account all aspects of who you are. The four quadrants take into account the interior and exterior of both individual and collective dimensions of reality. Taking only one into account—as most conventional medicine does—leads to a partial and incomplete healing approach. Until the western medical model expands to include all aspects of who you are, you can take back your own power over health and wellbeing by using this framework to create a healthcare plan. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com.

After being diagnosed with Graves’ disease, Dr. Lisa Cooney refused to believe that the usual medical options were her only choices and over the next few years healed herself through various modalities. In this episode, Dr. Lisa shares her seven steps to healing. These steps provide a roadmap to creating more choice and possibility in your health and your life. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com.

How do you respond to the call to adventure? Turning down the call is more comfortable, even when it keeps you in the discomfort of your present experience. It is challenging to say yes when your identity and worldview feel like they are under attack, and it helps to reframe your experience so you can create goals that move you forward instead of reacting to what is happening. Being present also helps in responding to the call. When we can commit to saying yes no matter what, then we can get through the early stages of the journey until we are far enough along that saying no is no longer an option. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com.

What is wellbeing and how do we increase it? Fiona Moore shares three common mistakes that undermine wellbeing. When we can shift our internal attitude toward ourselves and our illness, we can tap into the constant state of wellbeing within us, and heal as we live our life. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com.

Autoimmune patients often face significant challenges getting diagnosed and treated, not to mention lack of awareness about autoimmunity in general. In this episode, Virginia Ladd, founder and president of the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA), talks about efforts to increase medical research in autoimmunity, establish data that will support creation of diagnostic centers, increase awareness of autoimmune disorders, and advocate for patient interests. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com

The Autoimmune Protocol is one version of anti-inflammatory diet, based on the Paleo diet, which is recommended for people with autoimmunity. Clinical nutritionist Jessica Flanigan tells us about the basics of this diet and how we can support ourselves while on it. Diet is also one path into the deeper internal journey of healing an autoimmune disorder, and we discuss how to embrace everything that shows up in your experience, whether it’s eating off the diet or having an illness. Reframing and going after the blessings change health. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com.

Do your genes control your health? Do your beliefs have any impact on your wellness? Drawing from Dr. Bruce Lipton’s book The Biology of Belief, this episode explores how environmental signals control genetic expression, and how the beliefs in the subconscious mind affect your biology. The good news: We can change our beliefs, and therefore our biology. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com.

What is self-compassion, and how can we increase it? John Kinyon shares how we can bring the same level of kindness, care, and acceptance to ourselves that we would to a friend. Learn a process you can use after anything happens that you don’t feel good about. Show notes available at http://aiadventures.com.

What is healing and what role do emotions and beliefs play in the process? Explore the power of energy healing to shift beliefs and feelings to better support health, and experience it through a ThetaHealing® meditation on the call. Show Notes available online at http://aiadventures.com

Warring voices within, beating yourself up, and relying on willpower to stick to your decisions are hallmarks of internal conflict. Learn how to work with your internal conflicts by acknowledging and honoring all parts of you so that you can experience greater internal harmony and alignment. Show notes available online at http://aiadventures.com

What is the call to adventure, and how do you know if you are in one? If you’ve ever had an experience that causes you to question who you are or the way you think the world works, you’ve experienced a call to adventure. A call might come through a crisis, discontent, or a peak experience, and must always include a disorienting dilemma, in which your beliefs or ways of being are called into question. You can also choose to see challenges in your life as a call to adventure. Show notes at http://aiadventures.com

Explore with LeeAnn Mallorie how to listen to intuition and body knowing and heal the “one thing” that holds you back. We also discuss the relationship between purpose and wellness and how being fierce can support healing. Show notes available online at http://www.aiadventures.com

Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2008, Kelly shares her journey, including the many things she has done to help herself heal, going from a brain that looked 90 years old to one that today looks her age. Show notes at http://www.aiadventures.com

We all have a body, but how many of us really know how to be embodied? Jamie McHugh shares Somatic Expression, a unique approach that helps you to experience more support, ease, freedom, and success in your body. Show notes at http://www.aiadventures.com

How do we live a good life while having an autoimmune disorder? Kendra shares her experience of 20 years living with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. Show notes at http://aiadventures.com

What happens when you go from being a workaholic to suddenly being struck with an unknown and severe illness? Simla Somturk shares with us her experience of health breakdown and ultimately health breakthrough, and tips for eating to heal.

This first episode of Autoimmune Adventures introduces the podcast and myself, and lays the foundation through outlining my perspective on illness and the path of healing and transformation, and explaining all I want to explore in upcoming episodes.