Alexis’ Autoimmune Story

MEET ALEXIS

I am an American living in Australia 🙂 I’ve traveled all over the world and now run my own women’s nutrition practice. Aside from my business, I love dance, meditation, yoga, writing, and traveling. I have too many interests for my own good. I’m one of those people who is worried she won’t have enough time to learn and experience everything she desires 🙂

 DIAGNOSIS

After suffering throughout my twenties with bizarre symptoms like chronic UTIs, kidney stones, kidney infections, etc – my body finally tanked at 27. My health hit rock bottom, even though I was the healthiest person I knew. I was eating vegetarian, practicing yoga regularly, and meditating. I was both confused and frustrated by my body’s inability to power through. After two bouts of staph infection and a trip to Sri Lanka I started noticing symptoms such as extreme exhaustion, bloating, extreme anger and irritability, fatigue, horrible brain fog, poor memory, skin problems, chronic stomach pain/nausea, loss of libido, and on and on and on. It felt like with each passing month I was accumulating new symptoms and no solutions. I went through doctor after doctor, test after test and wasn’t getting anywhere. I finally connected with a wonderful holistic doctor and Chinese medicine doctor, both of which led me to healing. We found that I was mildly hypothyroid & dealing with pretty bad adrenal burn out. I was showing other auto-immune signs but my cluster of symptoms had not yet made it into an actual named pathology. It took me almost 2 years to move through this incredibly challenging healing journey but I am happy to say that I am AI free and feeling better than I have in a long time!

 LIFE CHANGE

Previously, my AI illness affected everything! my relationships, job, energy, clarity, sanity, body weight, creativity, sexuality…there wasn’t really any area of my life it didn’t touch. My one saving grace was my connection to spirituality and meditation which pulled me through some of the darker parts. Now, 2 years later I am basically committed to the maintenance and sustainability of my health. I focus on eating intuitively and medicinally instead of “healthy,” which is pretty vague if you know anything about healing. I continue practices such as infrared saunas, enemas, and supplementation. And I have cultivated a much deeper understanding of emotional health because of it all.

 HEALING

coffee enemas, supplementation, infrared saunas, eating meat regularly, acupuncture, art therapy, massage, skin brushing, etc. One of the big pieces for me was seeing a counsellor – we all think the healing we need is physical but when you’re struggling with chronic illness you literally start feel insane and deeply depressed. Seeing a holistic counsellor was so powerful in my healing.

 INSPIRATION

I read the book radical acceptance in the midst of my AI induced depression and it became my mantra for everything.

Find Alexis | @_mana_wellness