This is my journey to discover my autoimmune roots and how I am adapting my lifestyle to overcome my autoimmune diseases from 2016 to the present. This is a very personal and lonely journey. Who is on a similar journey? What would be helpful for me to share? Thank you for joining me on my autoimmune roots journey!
Click through “My Roots” menu to read about my family history with autoimmune disease, primarily psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis but also an aunt with MS and an aunt who died of lymphoma.
Things got serious when I developed disseminated zoster in 2019 probably caused by the biologic Taltz.
I broke the virus by doing a 5-day fast and food elimination protocol. I knew I had gut issue and had already tried several elimination protocols like Whole 30, an Autoimmune Paleo Diet, and a DIY approach based on a few books.
I have kept meticulous food, exercise, symptom, supplement and disease flare logs since then. The logs help me connect the dots and slowly improve my health. My goal is to find a way to keep my psoriatic arthritis tamped down enough to live pain free but without virus flares because of the biologic immune suppressing drugs. Here are my most recent logs that I update. Older logs can be found under the menus above.
Good afternoon,
I found your blog last night and after reading through it wanted to thank you for all the time you have spent making all this information about your personal journey as well as the wealth of research you have done along the way available to others.
I too have an autoimmune (or in my opinion I believe it is “auto-inflammatory”- undiagnosed, I have been to multiple top academic hospitals across America and everyone agrees there is an issue but no one knows what it is) that presented after years of having GI symptoms/ SIBO that was not managed with much success despite trying antibiotics/ probiotics/ Low FODMAP diets/ Iberogast/ Iberoguard.
I currently am on high dose prednisone as they cannot figure out what other steroid sparing drugs to use but know that prednisone at very high doses at least manages the inflammation/ CRP levels. The main issue currently is that my kidney shows severe inflammation/ tubular interstitial nephritis on biopsy, but they do not know what is driving it. They have looked for antibodies, both formally as well as “research” for ones that do not have FDA approved tests yet but found nothing. They have also tried to see if the DNA of my kidney matched the DNA of any other known kidney diseases with tubular interstitial nephritis but that research has turned out empty as well.
They were trying to wean me off the prednisone to transition to a biologic… but every time we try to wean the prednisone the inflammation comes back and the kidney function gets worse :/
I have heard from you and several people about how doing a fast for a few days can be very helpful- I am interested in doing this and going to run it by my dr. My biggest concern with trying to do the fast right now is I normally have to take the prednisone with some food or I get bad heartburn/nausea… and dont know how much my system can take of doing prednisone on an empty stomach and of course I cannot stop taking prednisone abruptly. However, I thought you had alot of good information about a wealth of diets and supplements- and thought that maybe I could at least try to change some of that up right now and see if it helps some. I currently just finished a 2 week course of rifaximin and am currently on a Low FODMAP/ no night shades diet (and trying to limit grain as much as possible), I was trying to do Atrantil as well- but stopped when I researched it and found that it was not well researched in kidney disease and was wondering if it could be somehow bad for my kidneys. I have also added a psyllium husk and fresh papaya or pineapple smoothie in the evenings which seems to do wonders for my regularity ( I think it is the combination of the fiber and the enzymes that act like a “broom” on my gut in the evening), followed by a large glass of water.
I did have a brief period of success of 6 months with at least my GI/SIBO symptoms where it seemed like I had gotten everything under control and I could eat anything and feel great… but unfortunately I had to go on high dose prednisone during that time and I think the immunosuppression from the steroid helped the bacteria imbalance in my gut return.
Would love to stay in touch and share about my journey more, the more I learn! I am still trying to learn everything and figure out which diets/ supplements make the most sense for me! I am a nurse by profession but currently not practicing… I feel that my medical knowledge helps me understand some of this, but so much of this seems to be on an individual basis and stuff I have never learned during school or during my practice. Feel free to contact me personally via email…
Best Wishes!
Kimberly
Thank you for commenting. I have recently been wondering if I should stop documenting things on this site as I can’t really tell if it is useful to anyone. I am currently reading a book called “Fiber Fueled” and you might find it helpful. You are on to something with the fiber issue. My sister is currently finding relief with FODMAP elimination as well. “Fiber Fueled” addresses it and suggests ways to gradually add fiber back to your diet to train your gut microbes to digest it. I’ve started making homemade kombucha & am going to ferment some cabbage next. “Fiber Fueled” made me realize that I have to constantly feed my gut microbes the same way we have to constantly exercise. I also thing Magnesium is important but very little is known about it. I stumbled across this article about magnesium this morning and was thinking of sharing a link on my site, https://news.uthscsa.edu/groundbreaking-study-finds-activator-of-magnesium-dynamics-in-the-body/?utm_source=Newsweaver&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Groundbreaking+study+finds+activator+of+magnesium+dynamics+in+the+body&utm_campaign=uthealthnews. Now that I know someone is reading I will keep this up!
Thank you for sharing your journey.
Hello!
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Thank you for your kind consideration!
Eliza McRee
Meat-Rehab.com
Reference:
https://www.vegansociety.com/news/media/statistics/worldwide#:~:text=Average%20annual%20growth%20in%20global,of%20Plant%2Dbased%20September%202020.
P.S. Reply with “New topics, please,” if you’re open to receiving an article but didn’t like the above suggestion. And just let me know if ever you don’t wish to hear from me again.