A Natural and Holistic Approach to your Immune Health
When I was told I had lyme disease 12 years ago, I was devastated. I was healthy, or so I thought. I exercised, was a vegetarian, and even took vitamins. What I quickly came to realize that this has everything to do with my “biochemical individuality”, my unique make up which provided an opportunity for this bacteria carried by the tick to invade my body and cause fatigue, fever, kick off an auto-immune response in my body. Our biochemical individuality is comprised of our genes, as well as our life time of environmental exposures, and how our body has responded to both of these factors and our unique nutritional needs resulting from the interplay of these factors.
I was determined to heal myself, so I made a huge commitment to my own personal recovery, created a team of holistic practitioners, and spent my free time researching everything I could about how to build a strong immune system. I have always been an avid reader of nutrition, homeopathy, and self-improvement type of books. Although I got the mind-body connection stuff, having pursued study as a Dance Movement Therapist a Master’s Degree in Expressive Therapies and avid yogi. In a few months, combining the best of both conventional medicine and naturopathic medicine I started to feel better. Today I feel exceptional. Empowered, I decided to return to school for a Doctorate in Naturopathy, I had technically been studying natural approaches my whole life and used many nutritional therapies with my own family. I was working closely with my allergist to address my daughter’s asthma and allergies, and I knew if I could help myself and my family I could help others.
Today, I am a practicing naturopath and have developed a ten step program on building a strong immune system which can be used for many immune and auto-immune conditions, not just lyme disease. As I learned early on, viruses caused by the lyme bacteria in the body represent a break down within the immune system. There are stages of immune compromise; fatigue, colds, headaches, allergies in increasing frequency, inflammation, auto-immune conditions such as hashimoto’s, viruses like shingles,and herpes, adrenal insufficiency, parasites, nervous system degeneration, and cancer to mention a few.
Naturopathy offers the body natural support so that it may begin to heal itself. Naturopathy seeks to restore and repair this breakdown. Most important is to address which system is weak and damaged; digestive,skin, immune, auto-immune, nervous system. And find the right support the body needs. Optimal nutrition is essential for healing. Addressing nutrient deficiencies, food sensitivities, reducing inflammation, nutritional cleansing and liver support, targeting viruses, healing the gut as well as mind/body practice are all important aspects of healing. With any health improvement program I believe the most important place to start is by making the commitment to recovery and healing. Then you must build a team of the right practitioners for you to help. Everyone is different and has different unique needs to healing. Having faith in your body’s ability to heal and getting the right support is the key.