Phoenix Helix: Autoimmune Resilience

This is one of the most popular podcast episodes - for good reason! There’s a community of 38 trillion microorganisms living in and on our bodies, and most of them reside in our gut. That's very close 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 is Dr. Lucy Mailing, a microbiome researcher and scholar of integrative gut health.

Life with chronic illness can inspire strong emotions that trigger emotional eating. If the foods chosen are inflammatory, autoimmune flares may follow, turning short-term comfort into longer-lasting pain. This often leads to feelings of shame, guilt, and self-judgment, which can drive more emotional eating, creating a vicious cycle. If you find yourself caught in this pattern, you aren’t alone. Today’s podcast is designed to help. My guest is Tomesha Campbell. She is a fellow autoimmune warrior, as well as an AIP certified coach who specializes in Intuitive Eating. She'll be sharing her personal experience and professional advice.

We tend to notice boundaries most when they’re getting crossed – by other people, or by ourselves. We also notice when we struggle to set them at all. Today, we’re focusing on the holiday season. If you have autoimmune disease, there’s a powerful intersection between your ability to set boundaries and your ability to protect your health. So, we are here to help! In this podcast, we share tips for setting healthy boundaries around food, time, energy, and money. My guest is Dr. Ellen Vora. She is a psychiatrist who takes a functional medicine approach to mental health. I love the way she educates around boundaries, which is why I asked her to be my guest today. She is also the author of the book, Anatomy of Anxiety.

Morning and bedtime routines are a wonderful way to bookend your day, starting and ending it with some joy and self-care. They can also make a big difference in the quality of your sleep. So in today's podcast, we do a deep dive into the science of circadian rhythms and learn how to create morning and bedtime routines that support autoimmune health. My guest is Dr. Sybil Cooper. She is both an autoimmune warrior and an immunologist. She has a deep understanding of the immune system both personally and professionally. She’s also a health and nutrition coach who helps people create new habits to thrive.

The modern scientific approach to medicine focuses on disease rather than wellness, it focuses on parts of the body instead of the whole, and tends to look at the patient separate from their life and the world in which they live. Traditional Indigenous medicine approaches health very differently, and that’s true for Indigenous traditions worldwide. They tend to embrace a holistic perspective, knowing that we are more than the sum of our parts, and that health is impacted by so much more than physiology. That said, modern medicine still has much to offer, but so does Indigenous medicine. Today, we’re going to focus on some of the Indigenous wisdom that might be missing from your own healthcare. My guest is Dr. Nicole Redvers, a naturopathic doctor, author, and Indigenous health scholar. She is a member of the Deninu K’ue First Nation and has traveled the globe, studying and working with Indigenous communities around the world.

If you have an autoimmune disease that attacks the GI tract, these procedures are important for diagnosis and monitoring your health. They’re also used as screening tools for certain types of cancer and have become an important part of medical care. One of the goals of this podcast is to empower us as patients, helping us better understand the medical care we receive. In this episode, we discuss what these procedures are, how to prepare ourselves mentally and physically beforehand, and how best to recover afterward. My guest today is Dr. Marvin Singh. He’s an MD who is board certified in internal medicine, gastroenterology, and integrative medicine. In addition to performing conventional medical procedures like the ones we’ll be discussing today, he’s also a strong believer in the power of diet and lifestyle to optimize health.

With autoimmune disease, flares are part of the experience, and we cannot prevent every single one. However, that doesn't mean we're powerless. Discovering our own flare triggers is a powerful piece of self-knowledge. It can help minimize how often we flare and how severe those flares are. That’s the focus of our discussion today. I’ve invited two other autoimmune warriors to join me. We’ll be sharing our personal flare triggers and how we manage them to live our healthiest lives.

When we develop autoimmune disease, our body becomes more sensitive and that often includes food sensitivity. Many of us turn to healing diets in an effort to eliminate inflammatory foods and embrace the foods that support healing instead. One risk, however, is paying too much attention to the foods we remove and not enough to the foods we add. Another risk is sticking to a dietary template without personalizing it for our body’s unique needs. There are lots of healing diets out there. We often talk about the Paleo Autoimmune Protocol and Wahls Protocol on this podcast. But other diets you may be familiar with include the Specific Carbohydrate Diet or GAPS Diet, the Low-FODMAP diet, a vegetarian or vegan diet, a ketogenic diet, or a carnivore diet. Today, we discuss which nutrient deficiencies are most common on which healing diets, and how we can make sure we’re getting the nutrition we need. My guest is Dr. Sarah Ballantyne. She's a best-selling author, speaker, educator, and former research scientist, fascinated with the healing power of food.

You may know Shauna Ahern as The Gluten-Free Girl, author of the award-winning food blog and cookbook series. Now, her career has gone in a different direction. After experiencing a medical crisis brought on by stress, she started looking at her life through a joy lens, removing stressors and adding more pleasure and peace. Now, it’s her mission to help others do the same. The truth is, it's often easier to find joy when life is going well, but what if you’re in the middle of an autoimmune flare? What if you’re struggling with depression or anxiety? What if you're in the middle of a life crisis? Is joy something we can cultivate even during our most difficult times? And what are the benefits if we learn how? These are the questions we'll be exploring in our conversation today.

I listen to a lot of podcasts myself and some of my favorite episodes are Listener Q&A's. It allows a lot of topics to be covered in a short period of time, and everyone learns something new. I asked you to send in your questions, and you delivered! Here are some we'll be answering in today's episode: How do you react to people who don’t believe your autoimmune disease is real? What is a good way to explain why I cannot have “cheat” days to someone who tries to pressure me into eating things I shouldn’t? What foods have you successfully reintroduced? Have you ever befriended a listener and ended up enjoying a long-term friendship? Why can some people seem to put their autoimmune disease into remission, and others who have diet and lifestyle "dialed in" still need immunotherapy? What has been the most powerful growth and learning for you through doing this podcast? With my friend Joanna's help, I answer these questions and more in today's podcast!