The top 5 steps I took to get my health (and my life) back!
...after a super scary diagnosis of Lupus in med school with little to no support by my doctors.
1. Saying NO—this was far and away the single most helpful thing I (slowly) learned and implemented in my healing journey. Saying no to plans when I was tired, saying no to eating out when it didn’t serve me, saying no to toxic relationships, saying no to holding on to pain and stress that was not mine to carry, you name it. As an enneagram 2 with a servant’s heart, I grew up finding joy in caring for and making others smile. Saying “no” was nearly impossible for me in this calculation, and I was terrified to let others down. This was SO uncomfortable at first, but now after years of support and practice, it comes second nature. And what do you know, now I know what it means to TRULY show up and care for others without taking on their pain, emotions, etc. And my health thrives as a result. Boundaries, am I right?! If you're interested in understanding more about the connection between emotional stress and disease, check out one of my favorite books on the topic: The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk.
2. Respecting my body’s rhythms—every cell in our body works on its own rhythm. You may have heard of the term “circadian rhythm”? Well, the signals we send our bodies, in the form of light, food, stress, movement etc all trigger cascades of hormones and neurotransmitters that modulate our circadian rhythms. Think about how amazing you feel when camping? In spaces like this, we naturally follow the rhythms of the earth and our bodies (wake up to sunlight, campfire at night, walk around throughout the day). As a med student when I was diagnosed with Lupus my days typically consisted of LOTS of screen time, lots of caffeine with late night studying, evening Crossfit workouts, and very limited sunshine. The following practical changes have been huge in supporting my body’s natural rhythms and my sleep quality: getting sunlight in the morning, eating a protein rich breakfast, moving my body in the morning, avoiding intense stress and exercise late at night, avoiding stimulants like caffeine after 11am, limiting junk light (oh hey ,social media scrolling!) and truly focusing on restoration and winding down at night. Deep sleep is when our immune system regenerates, and truly recovering and allowing my body to find it’s natural rhythm was and is an absolute game changer. Running experiments on what impacts your sleep/wake rhythms can be a really helpful way to start if all of this is new to you. My two favorite trackers for this are Oura and Whoop!
3. Cleaning up my diet—since the time of my Lupus diagnosis, this one has been pretty short & sweet for me. EAT. REAL. FOOD. Sure, I also strictly avoid Gluten (I happen to have celiac disease, but I really recommend this for all autoimmune patients), but aside from that I don’t strictly cut out any major food groups. I honestly find it exhausting and non-sustainable to completely eliminate food groups… and that sort of rigidity tends to fuel more stress than health for my patient population in my experience. That being said, I don’t consider chemicals and fake foods to be actual food groups. Give me real ice cream with cream and sugar over fat-free-sugar-free-food-dye-containing-BS any day of the week. The body knows what to do with real food, it has no idea what to do with the inflammatory disasters we throw at it in these attempts at low calorie “health”. So, in a nutshell, I cut out most processed food, but still have the occasionally gluten free semi-processed food (such as hamburger buns, etc) while being conscious of my sourcing. Shout out to Unrefined Bakery for always being my go-to! I do my very best to avoid vegetable/seed oils, food dyes, and other ridiculous chemicals, and my body has responded beautifully. And you will never find me eating fast food or drinking soda, these are just no longer part of who I am. Finally, this can be a hot topic, but personally… I very rarely if ever drink alcohol anymore. I just find I feel, sleep and recover MUCH better without it (this has much to do with my detox genetics). And I also have a blast without booze as well! But zero judgment to my partakers out there.
4. Learning my stress edge—have y’all heard of hormesis? This is essentially what I am referring to. How much stress can your body take and still adapt in a healthy way? Basically, nature’s version of “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger… until it doesn’t”. Take exercise: we all know the right amount is healthy, but not enough or too much can destroy a body, right? Well, in the setting of inflammation and autoimmunity, that bell curve of where you can adapt to stress in a healthy way sometimes gets reallyyyy tiny! I learned this the hard way. One day I showed up to Crossfit and I fell off the pull up bars because my hands were in excruciating pain. I had to swallow my pride and realize that that level of intensity was no longer helpful in my healing journey. I transitioned to yoga and walking for starters. And through the years, and through lots of trial and error, I developed that resiliency once again to do hard stuff (which, ironically, came from slowing down and focusing on recovery). I now help patients learn their stress edge through tools like bloodwork or wearables that show recovery and HRV, and help them slowly raise their resiliency as well. I had to learn that plenty of things could add “stress” to my body: exercise, poor sleep, emotional stress, not eating enough, over fasting, etc. It's about finding a balance of what your body needs and recovering harder than you strain your body. Remember, the dose makes the poison when it comes to stress - and there is a cumulative effect. Personally I like to use the analogy of an iphone battery… if you start your day at 90%, you’re probably okay to push yourself hard at the gym, and you may do okay with one hour less of zzz's. But if life is tough at the moment because your little one woke you up 3 times last night or your loved one is sick, and you’re starting your day at 25%, it’s probably best to skip the intense workout class and maybe opt for a walk outside instead. This is how illness is prevented, y’all. Learning what my body truly needed in terms of both pushing myself and in recovery was absolutely massive for me. Although am pretty attuned to my body's needs these days, I still track my systems as an added support to know when to truly push versus when the strength lies in rest. Let's give another shoutout to Oura and Whoop, because these baddies track things like resting heart rate, temperature and heart rate variability (HRV) in real time and show you your body's natural "battery life" for stress!
5. Personalizing my care and finding a provider that gave a damn—After my diagnosis of Lupus, I felt like I was sort of spinning out for a few months due to a lack of support in the healthcare community. The idea of lifestyle changes like diet and exercise shifts were literally laughed at. Even getting support in starting a vitamin D supplement was like pulling teeth in these visits (despite the actual loads of evidence to support its use). I laugh to think about all of the different changes I tried on just to see what helped, and all of the different supplements I tried. But, over time, I learned to advocate for myself, and find a team that actually listened and cared. And, of course, I educated myself. Fast forward a decade, and I found a precision medicine team that checked labs & genetics and helped me see what MY body needed to thrive. I was in a pretty good place by this time, and it helped me get to an even more optimized state. I now check up on exactly where my body sits (what gets measured, gets managed) at least twice a year. Medical evidence is based on whole populations, and you are 1 of 1 my friend. Find out what your body needs and is asking for.
I can’t wait to dive deeper into any or all of these topics in coming newsletters, y’all! Thanks for listening to the steps that changed my life.
A picture definitely doesn't tell the whole story, but the before and afters below serve as my reminder of just how much say we have in our health.
