I have been struggling with autoimmune issues for 17 years now. At first I really believed that it was anxiety and all sorts of crazy other things that I didn’t want to bring to light because nothing would or could fix the issues that I was having. Doctors couldn’t find anything except for an unexplained heart racing. My bloodwork looked great and on the outside, I looked fit and healthy to most. As women, I think we struggle with a lot of things that we are in denial about, so we force ourselves to learn to live with them. It doesn’t help when we can’t find answers either.
I was properly diagnosed 15 years ago with POTS, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. A skip in my heartbeat at a regular check up was discovered by a nurse practicioner friend of mine who recommended me to a heart clinic for more testing. However, the different medications and health plans that they gave me had such negative side effects that I chose to feel sick over taking any of them. Through trial and error, I found that electrolytes helped tremendously and combining that with staying active, I was able to manage my illness. Unfortunately, I couldn’t avoid being constantly worn out and because of my salt intake, bloated. It was something that I traded to feel better. There were good weeks and bad weeks but the bad weeks were habilitating. On the outside I looked like a determined mother working on her fitness but on the inside, I was exhausted and felt horrible.
It was almost a year ago when I had my worst episode, EVER. We were teaching my 10 year old to ski and thankfully, we were driving down the mountain when my attack hit. My heart raced and felt like someone was crushing it. I couldn’t get my heart rate to come down. This normally happens when I have a POTS episode but breath work and cool air combined with electrolytes typically brought me back to normal. Not this time. Sweating, turning white, and scaring both my husband and my son, I stuck my head out the window to breathe in cold air praying it would go away. I called my cardiologist and explained to him what happened and asking if I could get an appointment with the specialist at Stern Cardiology. Debra Turner is one of the top in this profession and a member in the American Autonomic Society. She specializes in Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia and the treatment of POTS linked to autoimmune illness. Thankfully there was a cancellation and I am now on the program with her. For a year now, I have taken 600mg of Alpha Lipoic Acid and 40 MG of Famotidine twice a day. I drink at least one LMNT a day and I take a 10mg of Amitriptyline at night. I have never slept this well in my entire life. She has me on a limited dairy, soy, gluten, and sugar diet which I follow strictly. I do find that gluten and sugar are major triggers for me. I took out alcohol for half a year to help with my hydration and honestly, I’ve felt better than I’ve ever felt. I noticed over the years that my face shape changed especially during covid. It was puffy feeling and as thin as I may appear to others, my stomach would look like I was bloated no matter how many carbs I stayed away from or how hard I worked out. It was inflammation causing it all. The worst part of the inflammation was my arms and legs falling asleep or losing circulation where I couldn’t warm them enough. They would turn purple or white and have a tingle that ached. My husband even found himself checking during the night if I was still breathing because I would hold my breath in my sleep. This was all from a lack of oxygen produced from poor circulation.
I would love to tell you that I’m still not drinking or that I’m on this extreme diet and I feel better than I’ve ever felt but I live a life of three kids with one being a 10 year old boy, running a business, traveling, and loving cooking and trying new foods with my husband. I try to stay as close to the plan as possible but I also don’t beat myself up when I stray. My body is already paying the price for it. We’ve been traveling and I’m in production mode with my jewelry company so my diet has been way off. Yesterday I couldn’t figure out why I’ve been so extremely tired lately and why I’ve been feeling constipated, bloated, and on top of that my face is swollen. On top of all the symptoms, I have the worst brain fog. I’m struggling to wake up fully until about noon then I hit a sinker by 2. It’s the worst! Then I remember that my diet has been totally off. These are all symptoms of POTS. Part of my INS and OUTS of 2026 is that I really want to live to live. What I mean by that is to live with intention. Remember little decisions do add up. We live in a world full of autoimmune triggers. I have to treat my body with respect and love. The mind/body connection is so important to reach our health goals.
Another very important part of living healthy is having a healthy home for my family. Unfortunately my 10 year old son also has an autoimmune issue and struggles with alopecia. You would never know it because we have worked for almost 10 years on helping his hair growth. It all started with food allergies. We didn’t know he had food allergies until I relentlessly searched for answers on why he was running fever constantly and why his hair was falling out. I never gave up and thankfully the 5th pediatrician suggested to test him for food allergies. How did I never think of that? Maybe it was because every other pediatrician said that it was a virus and it was normal and they prescribed medicines. Remember, you are your biggest advocate.
Hair slowly came back and then fell out again. Again, I searched for answers. I asked for a gluten allergy test and it came back negative. The more reading I did the more I found that gluten, soy, sugar, dairy… they are all inflammatories. The way we produce things in the US - they are manufactured and tampered with where our bodies just can’t break the artificial(man made) ingredients down.
I asked his doctor about this and there was a pause and a reassurance that he doesn’t struggle with this, but mother’s intuition kicked in and I knew that his hair loss was showing me total opposite. There was something that his body was fighting. That’s when I took matters into my own hands. At this time there wasn’t the endless amount of options for gluten free, soy free, etc. so I had to make everything fresh. His hair started coming back and coming back fast. Do you see the correlation here? Both of our illnesses are autoimmune and both respond to our processed diets.
So here we are today- Payton has the majority of his hair but still a few spots that struggle to grow hair. We have tried all of the specialists around for ointments of all kinds. They work for a little bit but it’s not the response that we all hoped for.
Now, on to present day. My struggle with POTS still continues but when I am completely on my diet, rested, and well hydrated, I can honestly say that I’ve felt the best I’ve ever felt in my whole life. However, I do love to try new foods, explore the world, and have an alcoholic beverage with friends and loved ones. I’m a mother, a business owner, and a wife. We are in a super busy place in our lives so unfortunately, I do get worn out.
So this journey that I’m now embarking on for 2026 is to find the best solutions for our lives to live a fulfilled life but to live “well” and not symptom ridden.
I do believe in the benefits in red light therapy. HIGHERDOSE has a hat that we are going to be trying for Payton. You all find my code in my profile on instagram drop down. We will be sharing our results with you on this. Also, I do have him back on a gluten free diet which is hard with school but we are going to try to stick with it as much as possible. I also did research on the Allegra theory. It’s said to target the inflammation in the immune system which would make sense to take since autoimmune issues are caused by inflammation to begin with. I’m also combining Mary Ruth’s Liquid Multivitamin plus hair growth to help strengthen his immune system which I believe certain vitamins get depleted during our repair process.
I’ll keep you posted on our journey and share the things that work for us. I post occasionally on my instagram about some of the recipes I use, new trends and if they work, and fitness ideas to help with circulation. Please reach out if you are struggling with autoimmune. It’s a frustrating journey but you aren’t on it alone. Because of people sharing their journey with me, I have achieved a healthier life. It’s an ongoing journey that we can face together!
After Autoimmune therapy Before Autoimmune therapy
