How to Change Your Life
When I was diagnosed with a chronic inflammatory condition, my view of the world changed.
Everything now seemed to have the potential to worsen my symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Foods, drinks, cleaning products…
Every time I turned on my computer it seemed there was a new warning about a favorite food, or a new supplement or type of diet to try.
Often my head would be spinning and I would end up more confused than before and be left with an overwhelming feeling of helplessness.
And if you’ve felt this way, too…
-If you feel like you are permanently swollen…
-If you feel like your identity has been taken away from you…
Know that it doesn’t have to be that way.
The last thing I want is for this next year to pass and you to still be:
❌ Stressed and overwhelmed not knowing how to improve your condition…
❌ Searching different topics on the internet for their relation to your specific symptoms…
❌ Struggling to read through a bunch of books and “research” that contain conflicting information…
❌ Worried you could be spending a bunch of money on the wrong foods and supplements…
❌ Confused and uncertain about which exercises are right for you…
❌ Concerned that your symptoms are multiplying…
❌ Realizing you actually feel worse more frequently now than you did a year ago…
❌ Hoping that the plan you’ve pieced together won’t lead to disappointment. Again.
I don’t want ANY of that for you throughout this next year… and beyond.
Instead, I want this to be the year you start improving.
✔️I want you to be educated, empowered, and make the right decisions for YOU.
✔️I want you to be active and live the life you want to live…
✔️I want you to travel and go on adventures…
✔️I want you to be independent and have good quality of life…
✔️And I want you to be there for your friends, family, kids, and grandkids long into the future.
My team and I can help you get there
In fact, we help people just like you, every single day, get confident in their plan for reclaiming control over the inflammation in their body…
We can lay out a plan for you, too.
You just have to take action.
So, if you are ready for a clear plan and expert guidance and support…
Click here to get confident about your future!
I look forward to working together to improve your health.
Are MS Drugs Effective?
When I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, there were three “disease-modifying therapies” (DMTs) available to treat multiple sclerosis. Now there are more than ten pharmaceutical drug options on the market for people diagnosed with MS to try in the hopes of slowing down the progression and minimizing the severity of the course of the disease. Taking a DMT has become the “standard of care” in Western medicine, and most MS patients experience significant pressure from neurologists to choose one as their main treatment for the disease.
Expensive Medicine
According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, as of February 2022, the median annual price of a brand-name disease-modifying therapy was close to $94,000. Even with insurance covering part of the bill, out-of pocket costs can still be thousands each month.
Back when I was diagnosed, I had private health insurance as an independent contractor. My health insurance covered some of the expense of the DMT, but in exchange they continually raised my rates so that soon I was paying more than five times the monthly fee as when I had signed up with the insurer. When I got married, my husband’s insurance (through his employer) deemed my MS diagnosis was a “pre-existing condition” and refused to cover it, effectively holding me hostage to my original insurer and their ever-more costly bills. It was years before the Affordable Heathcare Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, ruled that insurance companies couldn’t discriminate against pre-existing conditions, but by then I had paid tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket to simply be insured and not have to pay the full price of my medicine. At that time, the DMT I was on cost around $120,00 year without insurance.
Side Effects
Side effects vary from drug to drug, but can include flu-like symptoms of malaise and body aches, injection-site swelling, rashes, heart issues, brain damage, and even death. The side effects that I personally experienced during the years that I injected an MS disease-modifying therapy included three years of daily hives covering my entire body and regular injection-induced seizures.
Are the Drug Therapies Effective?
During the years I injected the disease-modifying therapy every day as prescribed by MS doctors, I continued to experience significant MS exacerbations at the rate of about one every ten months. Each exacerbation lasted around six to eight weeks. To me, this seemed to be pretty much the same disease course as I was experiencing before I started taking the drug.
This impression may not have been wrong as a new study out of Germany suggests that only three out of the ten MS disease-modifying drugs analyzed showed any benefit to the patient.
Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) report analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of ten drugs for adults with highly active Relapsing-Remitting MS (RRMS), which is my official diagnosis, and found the benefit to patient outcomes to be inconclusive.
That’s a big deal when the side effects of a medicine are debilitating with no proof that the drug is helping to either slow the progression or the severity of the disease course. For me, after a few years of dealing with awful side effects, it felt like the treatment was worse than the disease. I needed to find another way to deal with this disease in order to save myself not only from the effects of MS, but from the effects of the disease-modifying therapy.
It was amazing how much better I felt when I stopped taking the DMT. No more hives, no more seizures, more energy, happier. I worked hard to clean up my body and my life so that I wouldn’t incite another MS exacerbation, and it worked! My last major MS flare-up was in 2002, more than twenty years ago, and I am drug-free.
While I believe that once you have MS or another autoimmune disease you will always be a hypersensitive person, I have learned how to successfully manage my body with targeted diet and lifestyle changes so that I live symptom-free.
How to Treat MS without a DMT
Whether or not you choose to take a DMT, you deserve to know what is within your power to control the effects of MS! There is so much more that you can do to help yourself survive and thrive despite an MS diagnosis, but you won’t learn it at your doctor’s office.
When you are ready to take charge of your body and your life, reach out to me and I will tell you everything I have learned about taming multiple sclerosis (or any other chronic autoimmune condition)!
What to do when you are not “fine”
“You’re fine now. All of your tests came back negative.”
Have you heard this from doctors after completing a round or more of chemotherapy, getting bariatric surgery, recovering from an MS exacerbation, or taking a weight-loss or other drug?
Did you want to respond with something like: “But I’m not fine! Something in my body is not right.”
It’s not your doctors’ fault: they used all the tools in their toolbox to help you (pharmaceuticals and surgeries). Their training predicts that all your problems will have been solved by now. If not, then perhaps more drugs or another surgery will satisfy you. That’s all they have to offer in the ten minutes allotted for the appointment you have been waiting for months to attend.
If you’ve found your way to me you may be searching for answers beyond the conventional medical system. You may be wondering if a different diet could help you feel better, or if perhaps you have a nutrient deficiency, adrenal issues, or a microbiome imbalance after everything you’ve been through.
Do you have aches and pains that won’t go away? Does your body not work they way it should, be it in your gut with digestion or elimination, in your joints, or in your head with headaches, migraines, brain fog, depression, or more?
Are you missing out out on the important things in life like time with family and friends, milestone events, important
Let’s be honest: Are you tired of feeling sick and tired?
Now picture a future where you can play with your kids or grandkids. Where you can move comfortably without pain. Where you no longer spend your days on the couch or in bed.
What if you could find the right program to help bring you back to health? One that worked on your schedule, that didn’t include drugs with questionable side effects, or scary surgeries?
And most importantly, a program that has succeeded for many people with many different health issues?
Another Path To Health
If you have struggled to reclaim control over your body—how it feels and/or functions—it may be time to pursue another path to health.
If you’re wondering where to turn next, you may be ready for the next level of using state-of-the-art functional testing to designed a customized health plan that works.
One that includes cutting-edge functional testing of blood, urine, hair, and even DNA, to eliminate the guesswork that results in wasting so much time with trial and error or going down irrelevant—and expensive—rabbit holes. Combine that with state-of-the-art dietary therapy, electroceuticals, and other alternative healing protocols custom-designed to specifically work with your particular body and address the root causes of your health issues.
Let’s focus on Inflammation instead of symptoms!
In The Inflammation Academy we look at the root of all your symptoms: inflammation! By focusing on inflammation rather than symptoms we can finally heal while symptoms disappear.
Private and Group Support
In the 12-month Inflammation Optimizer program we will work intensively together, both privately in regularly-scheduled one-on-one Zoom sessions, and in weekly group community time.
Functional Testing
Not only will you receive 5 learning modules and 5 stand-alone courses to speed your healing journey, but we’ll dive deeper into your personal needs with functional medicine tests including:
- MRT food sensitivity testing to determine a customized anti-inflammatory diet
- 24-hour urinalysis to assess the state of your digestive tract
- Behavioral DNA testing to learn new habits to affect your health
- Micronutrient analysis to see where you might have deficiencies or overloads
- One additional functional test to be determined by your personal needs
All this while receiving support and resources for a full year! This is truly an opportunity to change the trajectory of your life once and for all.
If your prognosis is dim and you face a future of becoming progressively more debilitated from pain, discomfort, and dysfunction, then it behooves you to act to save yourself.
What are you waiting for?
Schedule a complimentary naturopathic health assessment with me today!
Gluten-free Apple Cake with Coconut Flour
I’ve been obsessed with perfecting this apple cake recipe this month in order to satisfy my 80-year old mother’s insatiable sweet tooth. I always suggest to my clients to do some baking while they are following any type of dietary restrictions because having baked goods can go a long way toward not feeling deprived.
While there are other gluten-free cake recipes may call for almond flour, my mother is sensitive to almonds so I turned to coconut flour instead. I recommend using all organic ingredients to maximize the healthiness factor, and I’m finally satisfied with this recipe and ready to share this easy-to-make, scrumptious, gluten-free cake.
Members of The Inflammation Academy community have access to tons of simple recipes that make living with food sensitivities or intolerances easier and more fun! Do you know what you’re missing?!
Apple Cake – Coconut Flour
3 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup avocado oil
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3 apples, peeled, cored, diced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Lightly grease a 9” round cake pan with avocado oil.
- In a large bowl or food processor, mix together everything besides apples. Let batter sit for 5 minutes, then fold in apples.
- Pour batter into cake pan and bake for 40-50 minutes or until the top is gently browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Cool in the pan on a rack, then slice and serve.
