Phoenix Helix: Maximizing Autoimmune Health Through The Paleo Diet And Lifestyle

Note to listeners: This podcast was recorded early in the pandemic in March 2020. While the advice on diet, lifestyle, and mindset still applies, scientifically we didn't have full knowledge of the pandemic. For more up-to-date information, listen to the following episodes: In Episode 154, we discuss what increases and decreases risk for a severe COVID-19 infection outcome for people with autoimmune disease. In Episode 175, we talk about Long COVID Syndrome. And in Episode 187, we answer questions about COVID-19 vaccines for people with autoimmune disease.

Flares are one of the scariest parts of autoimmune disease. They're unpredictable, often very painful, sometimes disabling, and always disruptive to our plans. In this episode, three autoimmune warriors share their best tips for making it through autoimmune flares with strength and self-compassion. We talk about favorite foods, lifestyle hacks, mindset techniques, and more.

Osteoporosis is a condition where the bones become weak and brittle, and it’s usually associated with aging. But it turns out that autoimmune disease increases our risk of getting this condition at a younger age. In this episode, we talk about why this is true and what we can do to prevent and reverse it. What tests are available? What treatments are helpful? What self-care steps are most effective for maintaining our bone health? My guest is functional medicine physician, Dr. Amy Nett. She answers these questions and more.

While not everyone has a sweet tooth, a lot of us do, and it's often hard to break the sugar habit. Why is that so true? It turns out there are a lot of forces driving those cravings: emotional, psychological, and even biological. It's no wonder they're not easy to resist. In today's episode, we dive into the details. My guest is holistic psychologist Dr. Vickie Bhatia. We discuss everything from the gut microbiome and brain chemistry, to the emotions surrounding food, to the psychology of habit change. Most importantly, we share practical tips for making empowered food choices, and breaking the sugar craving cycle.

If you’ve ever experienced brain fog, anxiety, or mood issues alongside your autoimmune symptoms, you’re not alone. Doctors know that mental health issues often increase with an autoimmune diagnosis, and a new scientific discovery might explain why. There are cells in the brain called microglia that are actually part of the immune system. And just as our body’s immune system can go into overdrive and cause chronic inflammation with autoimmune disease, the same thing can happen in our brains. My guest is science journalist Donna Jackson Nakazawa. Her latest book is called The Angel and The Assassin, and it’s all about these little brain cells and how they can help us or harm us.

If you’re a regular listener of my podcast, you know that I often start my shows with personal stories, where my guests share their health journeys from rock bottom to reclaiming a vital life. But at a least once a year, I dedicate an episode to back-to-back healing stories, and I make an effort to speak to people with different autoimmune diagnoses each time. In this episode, we talk about Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, Endometriosis, Sjogren's Syndrome, Vasculitis, Celiac Disease, Type 1 Diabetes, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Antisynthetase Syndrome, and also Autoimmunity in general. And if you want to hear the prior Healing Stories podcasts, check out episodes 1, 14, 30, 43, 61, 87, and 113. Let’s inspire each other!

This is one of the most popular podcast episodes! The right exercise has the potential to improve our health, but the wrong exercise can cause an autoimmune flare. Our needs will often change from month to month, maybe even from day to day. In this podcast, I share my own experience of how my exercise needs have changed since being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I also interview 3 other people about their exercise experiences as well. One guest has multiple sclerosis, one has Crohn’s disease, and the other has Hashimoto’s.

This is one of the most popular podcast episodes - for good reason! Once you start researching alternative approaches to treating autoimmune disease, it isn’t long before you hear of a gene mutation that can be a root cause for chronic illness and also a healing stumbling block. It’s called MTHFR. This is a very complex topic, and it’s easy to misunderstand and make mistakes trying to treat it. Our goal today is to explain MTHFR clearly in layman’s terms, talk about how you can tell if this mutation is indeed impacting your own health, and help you find a qualified practitioner to guide treatment. My guest is Dr. Ben Lynch, a world-renowned expert on this topic. He's the expert consulted by other experts.

When we feel lonely or isolated, it can seem like we’re the only person experiencing it, yet loneliness has become an epidemic affecting millions. Living with chronic illness can be an especially isolating experience, and it all becomes more poignant around the holidays. In addition to being emotionally painful, loneliness also carries health risks. It's been compared to smoking 15 cigarettes a day for its negative impact on health and longevity. But loneliness isn't a life sentence. In this podcast episode, we share practical tips for overcoming feelings of loneliness and expanding our social connections again. My guest is Dr. Ellen Vora. She is a psychiatrist who takes a functional medicine approach to mental health.

If the placebo effect taps into our body's natural healing capability, and the nocebo effect can turn fear into physical symptoms, these are things we need to understand. In this podcast we dive into the research to try to make sense of one of the human body's great mysteries. My guest is science journalist Erik Vance, author of the book Suggestible You.

What's the line between a healing diet and a harmful one? Orthorexia is a term that was first coined in the late 1990’s by Dr. Steven Bratman. It refers to an obsessive focus on healthy eating that becomes clinically impairing. This idea has become controversial in the paleo autoimmune community. Does a healing diet automatically set you up for orthorexia? What does it mean to eat in a way that supports your health? And what does it look like when this goal becomes unhealthy? My guest is Imei Hsu. She’s a registered nurse and clinical psychotherapist, and eating disorders are one of her specialties. She also has autoimmune disease herself as well as food allergies.

There’s a community of 38 trillion microorganisms living in and on our bodies, and most of them reside in our gut. That's equal to the number of cells in the human body. By this definition, we are only 50% human. This is why gut health has such a huge impact on human health, and research in this area is exploding. What does the science say about the intersection between the gut microbiome and autoimmune health? Where can we apply that knowledge in our own lives? And what are some common myths and misconceptions that new research is starting to dispel? My guest today is Dr. Lucy Mailing, a research scientist specializing in how diet and lifestyle impact the gut microbiome in both health and disease states.

Sexual intimacy can be challenging even in healthy couples. It’s an area that many of us aren’t comfortable talking about, but when you add chronic illness, the obstacles increase exponentially. Depending on your condition, you might be experiencing extreme fatigue, chronic pain, limited range of motion, muscle spasms, disability, bowel issues, skin conditions, and more. It’s natural for this to have an impact on libido, body image, and relationships. My guest, Kate Wolovsky, is a mental health counselor who specializes in the intersection of disability and sexuality. She also has multiple sclerosis herself, and her husband is disabled as well. In this podcast, she helps us break through taboos to talk about sexuality openly, sharing both her personal experience and professional advice. 

Blood sugar is one of the building blocks of life. It gives our cells the energy they need to do their jobs. Yet when our blood sugar gets too high, drops too low, or swings wildly between these extremes, it negatively impacts our health on multiple levels, including autoimmune health. In this podcast, we'll be taking a deep dive into this topic. What factors influence blood sugar levels? How can we tell if ours is out of balance? What are the common symptoms? What tests are helpful? And what diet and lifestyle choices harm vs. help? My guest is Dr. Jeff Horacek, a functional medicine physician with over 20 years of experience. Blood sugar is one of his medical specialties.

This episode marks the 5-year anniversary of this podcast! When I was thinking about how I wanted to celebrate, I decided to invite 2 friends onto the show who have been following a healing diet for 5 years or more. But that doesn’t mean our diet today looks the same as it did on day 1 of this journey. We’ve personalized it over the years, learning what does and doesn’t work for our unique bodies. We’ve had setbacks and recoveries, and we’ve learned to navigate our bodies’ changing needs.

Our topic today is Resilience, that ability to bounce back from life’s hardships. With autoimmune disease, we get lots of practice. Sometimes we feel strong and capable of overcoming suffering. Other times we feel beaten down and frightened by our body’s unpredictability. The good news is that resilience isn't something you either have or you don’t. Resilience is a trait we can nurture. My guest is Dr. Cynthia Li, a functional medicine physician who has autoimmune disease herself. The intensity of her own health challenges ended up being a masterclass in resilience, and also changed the way she practiced medicine.

This is one of my favorite podcast episodes! How does mindset impact nutrition and food tolerance? At its most basic level, food is sustenance. It fuels us for life. But food is more than just a source of energy. Emotions surround the experience of eating as well. Food can comfort and bring joy, yet it can also inspire feelings of guilt. People also connect with each other over food, building memories, traditions, and even identities. And when you're following a healing diet, there’s gratitude for food being medicine, often combined with feelings of deprivation, rebellion and grief. It's complex! Here's the fascinating part you might not realize: Not only does food inspire emotion, but emotions impact our ability to digest our food, including how well we tolerate foods. That's the subject of our podcast today.

This is one of the most popular podcasts - for good reason! In cultures around the world, we gather together over food: we have dinner dates, drinks with friends, favorite festivals, and big family meals at our grandparents’ house. What happens when we can’t eat that food any more? Some people make the mistake of giving up their social life altogether because they simply don’t know how to manage it. In this podcast, 3 experienced AIP-ers share their experience and advice for having a full and fun social life while still staying true to your healing diet. It can be done!

I have some exciting research to share! It's the first medical study looking at the paleo autoimmune protocol as an intervention for Hashimoto's thyroiditis. The results were impressive! In this episode, Dr. Rob Abbott and Angie Alt (the research team) give us all the details.

Most of you know Dr. Terry Wahls' story. She is a physician who developed multiple sclerosis, and in spite of the best that conventional medicine had to offer, she ended up confined to a tilt-recline wheelchair. She started to research nutrition and lifestyle interventions, eventually creating The Wahls Protocol. She's no longer in a wheelchair, and is now able to ride a bicycle to and from work. That said, she's not cured, even though she's often presented that way in the media. In this podcast we tackle the difficult conversation of what it means to heal, how not to compare your results to someone else's, the difference between progress vs. perfection, and the role acceptance plays in this journey.