Invisible Strength

When doctors told Vivek Baranwal he needed his colon removed, he decided to take his health back into his own hands.

Now he's helping hundreds of others living with autoimmune conditions do the same.

Vivek is living with ulcerative colitis and psoriatic arthritis. He's a nutritional therapy practitioner, personal trainer, and biology and science educator, and he's also a husband, father, football coach, and a pastor of almost a decade.

In this episode, Karin Wagner and Chris Burton talk with him about the moment his life was flipped upside down at 26, what it felt like to be "sucker punched" by a diagnosis, and how resilience, hope, and community helped him find a way forward.

In this episode:
• Vivek's first symptoms and getting diagnosed with ulcerative colitis
• Being told he needed his colon removed, and choosing another path
• How a sports mindset ("the game's not over until it's over") shaped his healing
• Rediscovering who you are beyond your diagnosis
• Why walking alongside others matters when you can't pick yourself up

Connect with Vivek: @vivekwellness

Invisible Strength is a podcast for Autoimmune Warriors & Allies, hosted by Karin Wagner and Chris Burton.

https://invigorateyourjourney.com

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please talk with your healthcare provider before making changes to your treatment.

Therapists told Yoni Wolf to quit music and find something else to do. Nearly 20 years into life with Crohn's disease, he's still writing, recording and touring.

Yoni Wolf, the songwriter and driving force behind the band WHY?, joins Karin Wagner and Chris Burton to talk about getting sick in his late 20s with no health insurance, moving home to Cincinnati, and years of trial and error with diet, doctors and biologics.

In this episode:
• Wondering "Is my music career over?" and turning illness into the album Mumps, Etc.
• How songwriting helps him process Crohn's instead of hiding his feelings
• Planning tours around flare-ups, plus a food-poisoning set, the mumps in Stockholm and a broken hand before a 10,000-person festival show
• Isolation, no insurance and the long search for the right treatment
• The unexpected gift of illness: a softer, bigger heart
• His advice for anyone newly diagnosed, and for anyone with a creative dream: "There is no magic. It's about putting in the effort."

About Yoni: Cincinnati-based musician, songwriter and singer behind WHY? He co-founded the record label Anticon, shares rough demos on his Substack, Wet Paint, and his 2008 album Alopecia is getting an 18th-anniversary vinyl reissue. WHY?'s new album Oh Golly / Yes Lord comes out October 30, 2026.

Yoni's story is his personal experience, not medical advice.

Chapters:
00:00 Welcome: meet Yoni Wolf of WHY?
01:07 From drawing kid to recording artist
02:56 Getting sick in his late 20s and moving home
03:38 Breath control and performing
04:40 "Is my music career over?" Making Mumps, Etc.
06:03 Wet Paint: sharing rough demos
07:46 How music helps him process Crohn's
09:29 Touring, planning ahead and flare-ups
10:40 Food poisoning, the mumps and a broken hand on tour
14:15 Looking back at Alopecia
16:32 Isolation, no insurance and years of trial and error
19:37 Unexpected gifts: a softer, bigger heart
21:09 How his relationships and music have changed
22:15 New album: Oh Golly / Yes Lord
24:02 What invisible strength means to Yoni
25:21 "There's no magic" in a creative career
26:42 When therapists told him to quit
28:21 The song he wrote before his diagnosis
29:07 Advice for anyone newly diagnosed
30:37 What's next and where to find Yoni
32:11 Thank you and goodbye

Follow Yoni: @yoniwolf on all socials
WHY?: https://whywithaquestionmark.com
Wet Paint on Substack: https://yoniwolf.substack.com
Oh Golly / Yes Lord: https://whywithaquestionmark.com/shop/ogyl

Find your starting point with our free 2-minute Autoimmune Journey Quiz: https://invigorateyourjourney.com/quiz/
Resources and coaching: https://invigorateyourjourney.com

Invisible Strength is hosted by Karin Wagner and Chris Burton, sharing real stories from autoimmune and chronic illness warriors.

New episodes every Wednesday. Follow the show on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen. If this episode resonated, rate it and share it with someone who needs it.

⚠️ Disclaimer: This content is for education and shared experiences only and is not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare team before making changes.

At 20, Bobbi was told she had cervical cancer and would never have children. Pre-op bloodwork showed she was 15 weeks pregnant.

18 years later, she woke up unable to use her leg, and within about six months of an MS diagnosis, she couldn't walk or hold a sentence together.Karin talks with Bobbi, founder of the Healing Well Method, about years of dismissed symptoms, self-advocacy, the detox steps that made her sicker, and the simple places she now tells people to start.Bobbi's story is her personal experience, not medical advice.Find your starting point with our free 2-minute Journey Quiz. Connect with Bobbi on IG: @holy.healing.mamaMore from Invisible Strength: invigorateyourjourney.com⚠️ Disclaimer: This content is for education and shared experiences only and is not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare team before making changes. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Catisha lost more than 200 pounds and was still in pain every day. A rheumatologist told her to lose 50 more. She pushed for testing anyway, and her ANA came back positive: lupus, fibromyalgia and PCOS.Karin and Catisha talk about:

• Starting over, from moving to the U.S. without English to life after diagnosis
• Self-advocacy when doctors judge you before they listen
• Losing more than half her hair as a beauty creator, and why new growth feels like hope
• What consistency looks like when your 100% today is only 10%
• Leaving a job she loved and building a new path as a creator
• What invisible strength means to her

Subscribe for weekly stories of reclaiming your health, and let us know in the comments: have you ever had to fight for a diagnosis?👉 Grab the free RESET workbook: it's the same first step we walk clients through before coaching.💇🏽‍♀️ Catisha's hair care picks:Gold Spell conditioner: https://goldspell.us/products/tonico-...Gold Spell hair tonic: https://goldspell.us/?bg_ref=MxwdTIO9nZFollow Catisha: @catishadaneylix
Connect with autoimmune and chronic illness warriors, explore resources, and get guidance to living your best life: https://www.invigorateyourjourney.com⚠️ Disclaimer: This content is for education and shared experiences only and is not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare team before making changes. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

McKenzie Bovard was told her crushing fatigue, bloating, and hair loss were "just postpartum."

Years later — after a plasma center rejected her blood three times and her husband asked her doctor, "Have you touched my wife?" — she learned she had a golf ball-sized thyroid tumor.Karin and McKenzie talk about medical gaslighting, the relief of finally being believed, becoming the CEO of your own body, and why treating chronic illness like an actual illness helped McKenzie feel better.

Her mantra: do less to heal more. Follow McKenzie on IG: @thrivekenzieGet Your Free RESET workbook to start feeling more rested.

Browse Our Resources created by our autoimmune community: invigorateyourjourney.comThis episode shares personal experience and is not medical advice. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Lauren didn't know people weren't supposed to be in pain all the time until a doctor told her.

In this episode, Karin and Lauren (@nourishing_lauren) talk about a lifetime of symptoms brushed off as "normal," living with MCAS symptoms, POTS, and hypermobility EDS, and how she found her biggest trigger (lemon and the citric acid hiding in everything).

She also explains how she works full time and studies by "rest maxing."

You'll hear honest, funny, practical talk about self-advocacy, social life, and self-compassion when your body has other plans.

📘 Free RESET workbook: https://invigorateyourjourney.com/reset-workbook/Explore our community of chronic illness warriors, resources, and guidance to living your best life: https://www.invigorateyourjourney.com⚠️ Disclaimer: This content is for education and shared experiences only and is not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare team before making changes. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

This week, Karin sits down with Sakshi — a 24-year-old lupus warrior who also lives with avascular necrosis (AVN), the same degenerative bone condition Karin has navigated herself.

Sakshi shares how she's held down a demanding corporate job while managing chronic pain, what it took to get diagnosed after doctors initially dismissed her symptoms as a routine skin issue, and the moment a specialist's careless comment made her change rheumatologists for good.

Key takeaways:

• Diagnosis took over a year and multiple dismissals. A "skin issue" in 2018 turned out to be an early sign of lupus, but it wasn't confirmed until butterfly rashes and a month-long fever landed Sakshi in the hospital in 2019.
• A supportive manager makes corporate + chronic illness sustainable. Sakshi works from home, communicates proactively about flare days, and has built a working relationship where flexibility goes both ways.
• Self-advocacy with doctors is non-negotiable. After a rheumatologist told her it would be "easier" if her symptoms turned out to be cancer instead of incurable lupus, Sakshi switched doctors — and encourages every warrior to get a second or third opinion rather than settle.
• Community replaced isolation. Starting an Instagram page to share her story connected her with warriors who understand pain her friends and family couldn't fully grasp.
• Invisible strength is the unseen prep work. Looking "fine" in a photo can hide hours of physical and mental preparation just to leave the house.

Grab the free RESET workbook mentioned in this episode— it's the same first step we walk every client through before coaching.Connect with Sakshi: instagram.com/lupuswithsakshiConnect with us: https://www.invigorateyourjourney.com#Lupus #AvascularNecrosis #ChronicIllness #InvisibleIllness #autoimmunewarrior ⚠️ Disclaimer: This content is for education and shared experiences only and is not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare team before making changes. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

A competitive bodybuilder and personal trainer for over a decade, Kelsie was mid-prep for her "redemption show" when her body started sending warning signs she couldn't explain away — and a hospital visit turned into a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.

In this episode, Kelsie joins Karin and Chris to talk about losing and rebuilding her identity, why she calls this season "slow cooking" instead of giving up, and why acceptance and grief aren't opposites.

Grab the free RESET workbook mentioned in this episode.

Learn more about coaching and resources at invigorateyourjourney.com

New episodes every Wednesday. Want to help us reach more autoimmune and chronic illness warriors? Please leave us a review!

#MultipleSclerosis #AutoimmuneWarrior #ChronicIllness #InvisibleStrength #Bodybuilding

⚠️ Disclaimer: This content is for education and shared experiences only and is not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare team before making changes. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Cindy hid her autoimmune diagnosis for 10 years — even from a military discharge board that told her she was "healthy, just didn't want to run."

It wasn't until a 12-mile hike, where her husband carried her the final mile, that she finally admitted something was wrong.

In this episode of Invisible Strength, Cindy — a NASA program analyst, wife, and mom — walks us through her diagnosis process, the depression and marital strain that pushed her into therapy, and the mindset shift it took to stop equating her worth with her productivity.

She talks candidly about the guilt of "trapping" her husband in a harder life, the relationships she's had to distance herself from to protect her health, and how an electric wheelchair changed an entire family vacation.

She also shares how she built a support community on Instagram where spoon theory needs no explanation, why she writes for RareDisease.com, and her long-term goal of starting a nonprofit that funds both faster diagnosis and the assistive devices insurance won't cover.

Key takeaways:

• Masking an illness doesn't protect you — hiding it for a decade made
• Cindy sicker, not stronger
• A diagnosis can be relief, not just bad news — it ended years of being written off as lazy or "just anxious"
• Assistive devices are strategy, not surrender
• Community fills a gap even a great spouse can't
• Boundaries — with family, with obligations — are health care too

Follow Cindy on Instagram: @sin_der_ellaaaaa
Discover Free resources for your own journey at www.invigorateyourjourney.com

Invisible Strength is hosted by Karin Wagner and Chris Burton. New episodes every Wednesday. Follow us so you don't miss an episode!

If this episode resonated with you, please leave us a review and help us reach more autoimmune warriors and allies! Thank you - we so appreciate it!

⚠️ This content is for education and shared experience only — not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare team before making changes. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Deanna Steinle was a professional diver, speaker, and PR professional before a diagnosis of generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) changed everything.

In this episode, she talks with Karin Wagner and Chris Burton about the four and a half years she couldn't be left home alone, the grief that hit a year after the crisis — not before it — and how she got back in the water with disability-certified dive teams starting in 2022.

She also shares the question she now asks herself before opening up to anyone about her diagnosis, and the two-weeks-apart crisis (a burst pipe, then a totaled car) that hit in the middle of her diagnosis journey.

Get support and explore resources at: https://www.invigorateyourjourney.com

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

1:14 What is generalized myasthenia gravis

3:23 First symptoms and the road to diagnosis

9:03 The new normal — career, family, insurance

12:17 Four and a half years of not being left alone

14:17 Returning to scuba diving

19:32 Mental health during isolation

21:38 Going back to school at 2am

28:04 What advocacy looks like day to day

30:26 Redefining hope

34:04 Small victories and momentum

36:37 The pipe burst and the car accident

38:09 Helping others communicate their diagnosis

43:19 What Invisible Strength means to Deanna

45:00 Where to find Deanna

Follow Deanna: @resilience.is.beautiful

See her film  on YouTube here.

🎧 Invisible Strength is hosted by Karin Wagner and Chris Burton, covering what it really looks like to live with autoimmune and chronic conditions — real talk, not just survival tips. New episodes every Wednesday.

If you're open to helping us reach more people, please leave us a review!

🌿Resources for your own journey: https://invigorateyourjourney.com

⚠️ Disclaimer: This content is for education and shared experiences only and is not medical advice. Always consult your healthcare team before making changes. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.