Phoenix Helix: Autoimmune Resilience

Food is the foundation of autoimmune health, but there are a few nutrients that are difficult to get through food, and magnesium is one of those. For that reason, it’s a supplement many doctors recommend, and many autoimmune warriors swear by. So, I'm dedicating today's podcast to magnesium. Why is it so essential? What roles does it play in our body? And how might magnesium (or magnesium deficiency) impact autoimmune health? My guest today is Dr. Guillermo Ruiz, a naturopathic doctor, researcher, and autoimmune expert.

If you ask people with autoimmune disease to name their biggest flare triggers, stress often tops the list. And if you ask people to name their top sources of stress, many are overwhelmed by the news. Today’s podcast is a life skill building episode – one that’s very important for emotional and physical health. How do we consume the news in a way that keeps us accurately informed without becoming overwhelmed? How do we discern fake news from real news? And how do we break through feelings of powerlessness to see where we can make a difference in the world? My guest is Sharon McMahon, an expert who shares non-partisan information about news and democracy. She’s a voice of reason in unreasonable times, and I’m grateful to have her on the podcast today.

When you see the power of food as medicine for yourself, it’s natural to want your children to benefit as well. It doesn't mean they need to eat just like you, but fostering a love of real food is an understandable goal. However, children often go through picky eating phases and have a deep love for packaged foods, fast food, and as many sweets as you’re willing to provide. One way to get kids interested in healthier eating is to welcome them into the kitchen, teach them how to cook, and allow them to select recipes to try. So, today we’re sharing tips for all ages: babies, toddlers, grade school, and teens. My guest is Ginny Mahar, a fellow parent and autoimmune warrior who is also a professional chef and cooking instructor.

When you have autoimmune disease, it's common to feel disconnected from your body and even betrayed by your body. Yet we live in our bodies, so this creates a complicated relationship with ourselves. Instead of self-love, we might end up feeling self-hate. How can we change that? How does self-love, or the lack of self-love, impact our wellbeing, both mentally and physically? My guest today is Dr. Shainna Ali, a mental health counselor, educator, and advocate. She is also the author of the Self-Love Workbook series. They are practical guides with concrete action steps. They go beyond a misty view of self-love and teach skills we can apply in our daily lives.

If you get referred to a rheumatologist and they suspect autoimmune disease, there's a list of tests they run as part of the diagnosis process. If you're diagnosed with autoimmune disease, there are specific tests that help monitor disease activity and also your response to treatments. What are these tests, and what does each one measure? How important are they in the diagnosis and monitoring process? These are the questions we'll be answering today. I believe in being an empowered patient, and part of that is clearly understanding the medical care we receive. My guest is Dr. Anna Lafian, an integrative rheumatologist who believes in a holistic approach to patient care.

When we think of skin, we usually think of the outside of the body, but our skin reflects what's happening inside our body as well. It's rare for problems to be isolated to the skin alone. Anyone with a skin-related autoimmune disease knows this. But it's also true for any skin problem, including acne, rashes, eczema, rosacea, and others. They're all signals from the skin that something is unbalanced within the body. We've talked about the importance of gut health many times on this podcast. It won't surprise you to know that it has a major impact on skin health as well. We're doing a deep dive into the gut-skin connection today. My guest is Dr. Shayna Peter, a holistic dermatologist who uses a root cause approach to heal skin from the inside out. She is a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine, specializing in dermatology and functional medicine.

This is one of the most popular podcast episodes - for good reason! 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.

Today we have a very special episode. I’m celebrating the publication of my new book: Healing Mindset. It’s a guide to the mind-body connection for people with autoimmune disease. The mind-body connection isn’t just an idea. There’s an entire field of science called psychoneuroimmunology that studies this connection. How we feel in our body affects how we feel in our minds, and our thoughts and feelings impact our physical health. Today, we’ll be talking about specific mind-body techniques, science-based benefits, and how to harness this connection for autoimmune health. My partner for this episode is Donna Jackson Nakazawa. Many of you know her as one of my most popular podcast guests. She’s an award-winning science journalist, author of 7 books, a fellow autoimmune warrior, and an expert on the mind-body connection. Today, we’re trading places. She will be the host and I will be the guest!

Autoimmune disease brings a lot of changes to our lives, and as we all know, it doesn't just impact us alone. It also impacts those we love – friends, family, and children. Today, I've invited three parents with autoimmune disease onto the podcast to talk about their experiences. What has been the most challenging part? How have they adapted as parents? How do they talk to their children about their health? And how have their children grown in response? This is a deeply personal conversation, and I'm so grateful to the guests for sharing. I hope it resonates with every parent listening, and helps you know you're not alone.

This podcast is all about autoimmune empowerment! Making choices in our daily lives that minimize symptoms and maximize our joy in living. That said, it's not always easy. Sometimes the habits are hard to start and hard to keep. Other times, you're doing everything right but not seeing the results you hoped to achieve. So, today, we're doing a troubleshooting episode with an expert guest and one of my favorite people: Dr. Terry Wahls. She is a functional medicine physician, a clinical researcher, a professor of medicine, and a fellow autoimmune warrior. In this episode, she shares her best advice for thriving with autoimmune disease and troubleshooting the obstacles we encounter along the way. We talk about motivation, family dynamics, digestion, supplements, physical therapy, personalized diets, and more!