pain

I Am My Own Worst Enemy

/ Ellen Lovelace / Leave a comment
Photo by REAFON GATES on Pexels.com

As rates of autoimmunity continue to skyrocket worldwide, you can imagine that we have many clients who are struggling with a variety of different autoimmune conditions. Most of our autoimmune clients come to A Balanced Table with a variety of symptoms, questions, and confusions…

but they all say the same thing:

💥 They feel like they have tried it all and nothing works.
💥They feel like they are fighting a losing battle against their own body.
💥They’re suffering through a seemingly unending string of debilitating symptoms.

Their life has become a revolving door of doctor’s appointments and prescriptions. And it just doesn’t seem to get better.

The reality is, before they started with A Balanced Table, our clients were managing symptoms, instead of getting to the root cause of their autoimmune challenges.

You see, when you have an autoimmune disorder, there are dozens of symptoms. Your immune system turns on you and targets your own tissue—your joints, your thyroid, your colon, or other area of the body—and it’s all too easy to get stuck in the symptom cycle without getting anywhere.

When you’re battling exhausting symptoms day-in and day-out, getting an autoimmune diagnosis can be a huge relief.  It’s an answer—you finally know there’s a real condition behind all your struggles.

However, at the same time, an autoimmune diagnosis feels disorienting. Because while you understand why you feel like you do, often it doesn’t help you understand WHAT to do next, or HOW this has happened.

That’s where we come in.

Instead of chasing symptoms we get to the root causes and help give your body what it needs to rebalance. We figure out WHY the immune system has freaked out and turned against your own tissues. We remove those triggers, calm the immune system, and stop the flares.

Our clients will tell you: their results are remarkable. They feel better, look better, and see vast improvement in their troublesome symptoms.

Our team helps you make food, lifestyle and habit changes that support your body’s innate ability to heal.

We can help you:
-Get through the day without worrying about what you eat.
-Stay active with less pain and discomfort.
-Feel less stressed.
-Take back control so you can feel better and enjoy your life again.

Food and Autoimmunity

When you have autoimmune problems, you’ve probably tried every diet out there. Maybe you went paleo and keto before they were popular. Or you tried cutting out sugar… without much success. You feel like you’ve tried everything.

So why didn’t it work?

We hate to say it, but there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to a diet that supports immune health.

Sure- we recommend that anyone with autoimmune challenges avoid gluten, sugar and dairy, and increase the number of vegetables they eat…but in reality, there’s much more to it than that.  After all, every single person is different. We all have unique sensitivities and needs. Maybe you’re fine with nightshades, or maybe they’re horribly inflammatory for you. Or, what if it’s chicken and broccoli that your immune system dislikes? How would you ever know?!

Using targeted testing to identify what foods are causing you problems, we help you understand YOUR unique body so you can decrease your autoimmune symptoms.

Autoimmunity and Stress

One of the most effective ways to support your immune system and reduce autoimmune flares is mindfulness. Our body gets signals from all over, and when our nervous system is stressed out, our body listens. It starts to panic trying to find (and fix) a physical problem that doesn’t exist.

And when you have an autoimmune disorder, this can lead your body to start attacking itself.

While a calm nervous system isn’t a magic fix, it is a huge step in taking control of your body. So, try out these habits and see what works for YOUR nervous system. You’ll be supporting your immune health in the meantime:

✏Journal
🧘‍♂️Meditate
😴Sleep
📖Read
👂Talk Therapy
🎨Make Art

Client Success Story

One of our clients came to us at 67 years young.

She was struggling with the symptoms of TWO different somewhat-rare autoimmune disorders when we first met. She was dealing with chronic fatigue and pain, and no matter what medications her doctor prescribed, the symptoms didn’t stop. She was miserable.

Shortly after she partnered with A Balanced Table, though, that all changed.

We identified what imbalances her body was experiencing, what food sensitivities needed to be addressed, and we helped her learn how to live a more balanced life.

Within a few short months, she felt:
✨ More control over her body
✨ Increased energy
✨ Better mood and overall happiness

As time went on, she had less and less pain, and her autoimmune related symptoms subsided almost entirely…to the point that her doctors ended up taking her off her meds!

She’s been working with A Balanced Table for five years and at 72 years of age, she feels better than ever.

We share her story to remind you:
You are not too old.
You’re not too sick.
It isn’t too late.

Your body is capable of amazing things when you give it the right nutrition and support.

What will YOUR success story look like when you stop managing symptoms, and start addressing the root cause? Reach out for a free 15-minute call to talk about how we can help support you. We will chat about your autoimmune challenges, and how we may be able to identify and address the root causes of your immune system dysregulation.

Fight Pain and Inflammation Naturally

/ Ellen Lovelace / 1 Comment

Whether you’re an athlete, a weekend warrior, or just occasionally clumsy, lumps, bumps, bruises, and injuries are a part of life. Joint pain is also something most of us will deal with at some point. We may often reach for the bottle of Advil or aspirin without a second thought. These powerful medications do indeed help with pain and inflammation, but that may not be the right thing for your body.

Inflammation and swelling is your body’s way of taking action against an insult, and starting the healing process. Let’s say you roll your ankle stepping off a curb. You do no major damage, but you create some micro-tears to the tissue in the area. By sending in inflammatory compounds and thereby inflaming the ankle, your body creates a pathway that allows the immune system to mount a defense and start the healing. That inflammation ushers the white blood cells to move in and clean up the damaged tissues. (It’s also why infected tissues get inflamed–so the white blood cells can rush in to kill off the invading bacteria.)  Once the body has inflamed the area to start the healing process, it can then send in anti-inflammatory compounds to further help heal and calm the injury. So, the body’s natural process is, it must inflame before it can anti-inflame.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) like Advil stop the body’s process of creating pro-inflammatory compounds, and therefore reduce pain and swelling, but in so doing they also stop the creation of the body’s anti-inflammatory compounds, and can slow healing. Aspirin and NSAIDs can also cause a host of other problems in the body, chief among them damage to the stomach lining and interference with good digestion. They will also make bruising worse.

There are some good alternative routes to help relieve pain and swelling, when it’s too much to just ride out.

First, take a good look at your diet. Both our pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory compounds are created by the body from the fatty acids (fats) we eat, which is why high quality omega 3 and 6 fats such as those found in nuts, seeds, and fish are key to the healing process. A good mixed EFA (essential fatty acid) supplement is worth adding to your daily regimen, especially during times of healing. Vitamins C, E, B3, B6, and the minerals magnesium and zinc are key cofactors to these processes as well. Fresh fruits and dark green veggies, poultry, fish, beef, mushrooms, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, avocado, beans, cashews, and prunes will give you healthy doses of these nutrients. Remember also that sugar is highly inflammatory and will slow your healing process.

Especially when it comes to joint pain, water is your friend. The cartilage in our joints is 80% water. The main key to healthy joints, and the first remedy to reach for when they start popping and clicking, is water: half your body weight in ounces daily (to a maximum of 100 ounces). For healthy collagen, the matrix of glue that holds our cartilage together, ensure your diet contains adequate protein (amino acids), vitamin C, iron, copper, and water. One major component of collagen is chondroitin sulfate. Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate supplements can make a huge difference to joint health, but they must be consistently taken 3x/day for up to 6 weeks before you will see any effect (and must be avoided if you are allergic to sulfur). Also for joints, antioxidants combat the free radicals and enzymes that damage the joint (synovial) fluid, and EFAs help with swelling and pain–so make sure to eat lots of colorful fruits and veggies, nuts, seeds, fish, and avocado.

Finally, there are some natural supplements that can be very helpful. All of these can be found at Whole Foods or other natural stores:

  • White willow bark is the plant that contains the active ingredient that is synthesized into aspirin. It is usually in a tincture.
  • Capsaicin gel or cream can be useful applied topically for joint, muscle, or nerve pain. Its active ingredient is derived from chili peppers.
  • Boswellia is an anti-inflammatory compound derived from a tree, and can be used as a topical cream or an oral supplement.
  • Curcumin is the bright-yellow compound found in the herb turmeric, and is a powerful anti-inflammatory. Taken as a supplement, it should also include the active ingredient from black pepper, which increases its effects.

Stay safe out there, but know that when life takes its lumps, you have some tools to fight back!