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From Page to Practice: Applying Research to Support Clients with Autoimmune Conditions

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One of the reasons I love hard copy books is that the information can’t be hidden or scrubbed electronically.
I’ve had this book for several years and pulled it out again recently because I have a young, (previously vibrant ) young client who has recently been diagnosed with Hashimoto’s.
When I inquired about her vaccination status (in discovery), she said she is “up to date” on her vaccines.
This means she’s likely had well over 70 vaccines already in her young life.
Hashimoto’s is one of the most common AutoImmune disorders of all, and it affects women more commonly than men (likely because it is so closely tied to our sex hormones which are much more fragile in balance than men’s testosterone).
There are over 100 different autoimmune disorders out there, and if the root causes are left unaddressed, one will lead to more. Guaranteed.
Are vaccines and drugs the only things causing autoimmune disorders? Absolutely not…. we live in a toxic soup world and if we don’t take the bull by the horns and be our own advocates we very much put ourselves and those we love at risk. This is one of the reasons cleaning up our own environments (food choices, household, personal care products, makeup etc) is so important.
The application of knowledge is power, and the application of knowledge gives us the opportunity to both prevent destruction and to heal.🙏
xoxo~ liz
 
research on link between vaccines and autoimmunity
toxicity of aluminum adjuvants in vaccines

Beyond Side Effects: The Decades-Long Link Between Medications and Autoimmune Disease

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It’s hard to shock me when it comes to pharma and the collateral damage it is capable of, but my research today has me drop jawed.
 
Any other pharmacists, nurses, doctors, NP’s, or other allopathically trained professionals….. help me out here. Were you aware of the scope/magnitude of this statement? 👇👇
 
“Although autoimmunity secondary to drugs has been recognized for over 70 years (the 70 years part is what is shocking to me, and that it’s being stated in this book), introducing new drugs has extended the spectrum and severity of clinical manifestations.”
Source: Drug-Induced Autoimmunity (by Szyper-Kravitz, Shoenfeld and Hernandez, published January 2025 pages 75-79)
 
The clip I’ve posted here is of another journal article. Notice the date…. 2002 (and this particular article is specific to the autoimmune disease, lupus). Not new news. 🧐Look at the “probable” list….. such commonly prescribed drugs!
Autoimmune disorders are like cats….. you rarely end up with just one…. it’s a spiral if you don’t get things under control and corrected within the body (starting with the gut!).
 
Medication should be a LAST choice after all other options have been tried.
THIS is why I do what I do. There is a time and a place for western medicine (emergent care or when all else has been tried). Find your guide. It may not be me…. and that’s ok. 💖 But find your person who can lead you out of the pharma lifestyle. You are worth knowing your options. 🙏
xoxo~ liz

Autoimmune Increases with COVID shot

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Part of being a health detective is following the trail of the thief of health.
 
“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.” ~ Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes)
 
I’ve been asked the question on more than a few occasions, “Could taking the covid shot have made my autoimmune disorder worse?” The answer is YES, both in terms of aggravation and activation of a previously dormant gene or in the words of this recent study:
” The histopathological data provide indisputable evidence that demonstrates that the genetic vaccines exhibit an off-target distribution, causing the synthesis of the spike proteins and thus 🛑triggering autoimmune inflammatory reactions🛑….. “
 
Informed Consent…. it’s so very important to understand your rights and responsibilities as the CEO of you. The Cures Act (signed into law in Dec 2016) effectively gave a large loophole to big pharma that is used to bypass evidence-based standards/insufficient safety or efficacy data for new drug approval. According to an article in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), the majority of drugs (and vaccines) are now FDA-approved based on a single study. Would you trust your health based on a handful of mice 🐁🐁🐁🐁🐁🐁🐁🐁🐁🐁?
Mindful Medical Monday…… make it a great one, and make health decisions after being fully informed.
 
xoxo~ liz
 

“The Untold History of Type 1 Diabetes: How Modern Foods and Toxins Impact Pancreatic Health”

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diabetes caused by food changes
The Untold History of Type 1 Diabetes: How Modern Foods and Toxins Impact Pancreatic Health
“History is not history unless it is the truth.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
 
The metamorphosis of diabetes in the United States over the last 100 years is an interesting tale with several thieves of health participating in what seemingly feels like a collaborative effort to bring large populations of unsuspecting citizens to the feet of Big Pharma. Diabetes may happen in one of two main ways: the destruction of the beta cells within the pancreas (Type I), or a rising resistance within the body to insulin (Type II). For the sake of today’s history lesson, the focus will be on Type I diabetes, also called Juvenile diabetes or diabetes mellitus.
 
In 1920, diabetes in kiddos was quite uncommon, with an incidence of 3-4 per 100,000. In an eighty year span, by the year 2000, the incidence had risen to 3-4 per 1,000. Today, that number (1 in 250) is still continuing to rise. Interestingly, these stats do not include previously healthy adults who acquire Type I diabetes after the age of 20 (approximately 1.6 million adults ….. 5.7% of all US adults diagnosed with diabetes according to the CDC). I think you’ll agree that those numbers point to quite a🕵️ crime spree where the theft of health is a decades long embezzlement scheme.
 
Let’s take a look at ringleaders and suspects.🔎
Type I diabetes is quite different from Type II. Causes and contributors include:
🔎Autoimmune dis-ease (nearly always toxin triggered)
🔎A family history of Type I diabetes which predisposes offspring genetically to a greater likelihood of acquiring Type I when exposed to epigenetic (environmental) challenges that are known as possible triggers to the gene.
🔎Toxins (found in food, drink, household chemicals, personal care items, and environmental chemicals)
Infection
🔎Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy and childhood
🔎Early childhood exposure to pasteurized homogenized cow’s milk and dairy products (a completely different food than raw cow’s milk)
🔎Early childhood exposure to modern grain gluten sources, especially bleached white flour
🔎Early childhood exposure to environmental chemicals found in foods (ex: glyphosate, nitrates and nitrites often found in processed meats)
🔎Leaky gut syndrome (which leak what the body identifies as toxins into the rest of the body)
🔎Vaccinations known to have the capability to trigger Type I diabetes. Multiple documented cases and studies implicate Pneumococcal, Hep B, Haemophilus Influenzae Type B (HIB), MMR, and Covid vaccines as causative agents. (A good resource to learn more about this is the book, Miller’s Review of Critical Vaccine Studies)
 
Did you catch the common theme?🧐 ….Toxin load.
White “all purpose” flour has a fascinating role in this crime vignette. “All purpose” white flour* is wheat that has been stripped of the bran and germ layers (the nutrient dense portion of wheat berries which happens to shorten the shelf life of flour when included as part of flour). The flour then is exposed to chlorine gas to make the slightly brown remaining starchy flour white. When chlorine gas is exposed to the pigments ( the color which makes it brownish in appearance) in wheat flour, a chemical reaction occurs producing a byproduct chemical called alloxan. You won’t find alloxan on any ingredient list on breads or packaged foods because technically, it’s not an added ingredient. Alloxan is a toxin and known carcinogen. It also has a strong affinity for the beta cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. That’s rather unfortunate as it causes cellular death of the beta cells. When enough beta cells have died due to constant exposure to the white flour containing foods, insulin production decreases and ultimately risks stopping completely. The Textbook of Natural Medicine calls alloxan a “potent beta-cell toxin”. ( No kidding. It’s commonly used in clinical trials to induce diabetes in lab animals.) The textbook, Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry II states:
“Alloxan, a pyrimidine structurally similar to glucose and uric acid, directly disrupts β-cell membrane permeability and produces irreversible β-cell damage within 12 h in most animals. “
 
Now, here’s the interesting history lesson: Flour was not bleached commercially until sometime after 1912. A good man by the name of Dr. Harvey Wiley MD was head of the Bureau of Chemistry (a precursor to the FDA) from 1908-1912. Dr. Wiley was a proponent of whole unprocessed foods, and he fought against bleached flour ( as well as benzoic acid, sulfites, saccharin, and other food additives) all the way to Capitol Hill by way of Congressional hearings. He ultimately left his position in 1912 in frustration and disgust, and later wrote a book in 1929 entitled “The History of A Crime Against The Food Law”. The government, in its wisdom 🙄, replaced Dr. Wiley with a Dr. Elmer Nelson, who was the antithesis of Wiley. Nelson was quoted as saying,
“It is wholly unscientific to state that a well-fed body is more able to resist disease than a poorly fed body. My overall opinion is that there hasn’t been enough experimentation to prove that dietary deficiencies make one susceptible to disease.”
 
In my opinion, Nelson was either unbelievably ignorant or a shill. It is interesting to note that prior to working for the FDA, Dr. Nelson worked for the Soft Wheat Millers Association. Ground wheat will actually whiten on its own without the dangerous alloxan byproduct if given the proper time (a month or two) and environment to do so, but time is money to the Soft Wheat Millers of America, and it helps to have friends in high places.
 
Long story short, modern wheat, with its crazy high gluten content, additionally weaponized with probable alloxan content, and sprayed with glyphosates and other agricultural toxins would be high on the list of suspects🔎 for creating mischief within the pancreas.
 
I know. It’s not fun to think about doing without🥖 breads, 🧁pastries, 🥣cereal, 🍜spaghetti, 🧇waffles, and 🥞pancakes to avoid high gluten content and pancreas damaging alloxan. Thankfully, Gary Young had the foresight to make available food products which contain the much healthier unbleached ancient grain einkorn. Young Living’s Einkorn Flour, Einkorn Granola, Einkorn Spaghetti, Einkorn Rotini Pasta, Einkorn Pancake and Waffle Mix, Einkorn Flakes Cereal, and (when in season) Einkorn (unground) Berries if, like me, you like to grind your own wheat. Whew! I was starting to feel a little like Bubba Gump going through that lineup available to us! Einkorn bakes a little differently than the bleached white stuff you may be used to, so they’ve even conveniently created an Einkorn cookbook (created by Heidi Ellis)! In it, are 80+ recipes for pizza dough, breads, cakes, crackers, tortillas and more. If you haven’t tried einkorn products, you are in for a treat….. They are far more flavorful than those made with bland unhealthy white flour. For those who must completely abstain from any form of gluten, Young Living also has a Gluten Free Pancake and Waffle Mix (sadly, it is currently out of stock), but there are many other healthy flour options to choose from in the marketplace: coconut, almond, oat, brown rice, amaranth, and chickpea are all good options.
One of the most valuable things we can give ourselves is empowered knowledge so that we can make informed decisions on what we choose to allow into our personal homes and bodies. Many of the causative agents listed above can be avoided, decreasing the odds of developing Type I diabetes and other dis-eases.
The second most valuable thing we can give ourselves is grace (without guilt) to do better once we know what we didn’t know before. We can’t know everything, and digging for factual information that is purposefully hidden (and frequently out of print) can be hard, confusing, and frustrating. Don’t think for a minute that making it hard to find truth isn’t done to us on purpose. Understanding the true history of “us” is important to our health, so we can learn, do better, and avoid the lure of purposefully addictive foods created by industries (both food and Big Pharma) that have profit over purpose😠 as its primary goal.
 
Other ways to create a body environment for decreased risk of developing diabetes include:
✅Knowing levels of Vitamin D, and supplementing accordingly. Shoot for lab values 70-90 ng/mL. This is an important number to know during pregnancy, and frankly a valuable thing to know throughout life, even for infants and children. Depending on how much supplementing is needed, Young Living’s Super D may be enough for some adults and older children, while others may need a much higher dose (D3/K2) to maintain healthy levels.
✅ Avoid nitrates, nitrites, and nitrosamines (often found in packaged meats)
✅Include cod liver oil in your supplement regimen. It’s available in liquid and capsule form.
✅Breastfeeding has been found to decrease the risk of Type I diabetes in children. Exposing babies in a delayed fashion to common suspect food triggers is also helpful.
✅Providing a solid source of Omega-3 Fatty Acids is also helpful. Young Living’s MindWise is a good liquid option for kids and is also helpful support for brain health and development. OmegaGize3 is another excellent option (for adults) in capsule form.
✅Strive for a diverse gut microbiome. People with Type I diabetes tend to have a less diverse gut microbiota. Use antibiotics only when absolutely necessary. According to the CDC, at least 30% of antibiotics prescribed are unnecessary. I personally believe that number is even higher. Not only does excessive antibiotic use breed antibiotic resistance, it has a profound negative effect on the gut microbiome.
✅Make a regular healthy source of antioxidants part of your daily routine to help offset the oxidative damage done to the beta cells in the pancreas. NingXia Red is an ideal option for all ages. The Young Living website gives an easily understandable explanation:
“Antioxidants, why are they important? They are the antidote to oxidative stress! …..Oxidation has been implicated in the origin of more than 100 human diseases and in the aging process.”
Einkorn and NingXia Red….. healthy and healing food options. Over 2400 years ago, Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.” Good food is good medicine, with the ability to both protect and heal.
xoxo~ liz
 

Thyroid Problem Clues – part 2

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Analysis Paralysis has finally released its hold on me as I dip into the complexities of thyroid dysfunction and their absolute connection with autoimmune disorders. It’s important to understand that over 90% of diagnosed hypothyroid patients actually have an autoimmune disorder.
History always helps me understand science and biology because history leaves valuable clues. A journal article I read yesterday had this interesting tidbit:
“During the first half of the century [1900’s], autoimmune disease was viewed as biologically implausible.”
My, how things have changed!🥴 Resistance to the idea that autoimmunity could not happen began waning in the 1960’s. By then, life had changed drastically in many ways. Processed foods were introduced into mainstream eating habits, medication / vaccination use steadily inched upwards into the norm rather than the exception, plastics became part of our everyday world, fluoride was added to water, personal care products had a growing ingredient list of words that were barely pronounceable, herbicides were used ubiquitously and parents let their kids run behind the trucks that were spraying DDT for mosquitoes🦟! Thankfully the DDT spraying has stopped, but other pesticides quickly took its place. The toxin list has grown by leaps and bounds over the decades. Today, our bodies have to wade through the toxic soup☠️ known as the standard American life. Genetically, we haven’t changed appreciably, yet we are now part of the sickest generation in recorded history.
Did you know that at least 90% of genetic expression is the result of our environment, while the other 10% can be attributed to the role of the proverbial parental genetic dice? Epigenetics (the expression of our genes based on environmental influences) will look differently for each person based upon genes + exposure to infection (often viral), the Standard American Diet (simultaneously nutritionally deficient and toxic), pollutants (both in and outside the home), medications/vaccines, emotions, and stress. Epigenetics is so specifically unique to an individual that even identical twins👭 may express genes differently when exposed to chronic stressors. If you are going to put together a perfect crime scene,🔎 this is the way to do it!
 
Roughly 20% of the adult population in the USA now has an autoimmune disorder
And this percentage continues to rise. Prior to the 1970’s, autoimmune disorders were relatively obscure. Hashimoto’s, the autoimmune version of hypothyroidism, is considered by The Autoimmune Registry to be the second most common of all autoimmune disorders (second only to rheumatoid arthritis).
There is both bad and good news about autoimmune disorders. While they never disappear, they can certainly go into remission with the right lifestyle changes and choices. It’s a good thing we are in control of our personal choices!😉
 
According to leading Hashimoto’s and autoimmune disorder expert, Dr. Datis Kharrazian, there are 3 stages of autoimmune disease:
🔎Stage One is the silent stage. The body has begun losing its tolerance to its own tissue, but to the western health practitioner, there will be very few “hard core” symptoms. You though, as the CEO and chief sleuth🕵️, will feel “off”. What does “off” feel like? Well, that depends! It may be something as subtle as spending more (or less!) time in the bathroom. Perhaps it might be a rash that comes and goes. Maybe it means you are having difficulty finding the zest for life you once had, or you just have a little harder time waking up in the morning or falling asleep at night. Stage One is very important, as catching “things” early can be a game changer in the outcome. Lab work identifying elevated TPOAb and TGAb antibodies (for Hashimoto’s) can be very revealing. Neither test is very expensive when you pay out of pocket. Sadly, insurance companies often refuse to pay for these as “maintenance” labs. If your request is refused, I highly encourage you to pay out of pocket elsewhere and have the tests run annually with other labs.
 
🔎Stage Two is considered the reactivity stage and actual destruction to target tissue has begun. Symptoms are much “louder” and harder to ignore inside your own body. In fact, it may be this stage that finally sends you to a healthcare practitioner, though you’ve felt “off” for perhaps even years.
 
🔎In Stage Three, westernized medicine officially acknowledges the autoimmune disease. Significant destruction of the targeted tissue has occurred and there may even be collateral damage occurring elsewhere throughout the body. At this stage, damage can be seen by an MRI or ultrasound in addition to the elevated antibodies and actual symptoms.
 
Interestingly, the level of antibodies detected doesn’t necessarily indicate the severity of the Hashimoto’s. The antibodies themselves do not cause the thyroid gland destruction. Without getting too technical, the antibodies bind to and mark the spot (ie: the thyroid), and then the T Cells ( think of them as a special forces unit of the immune system) come in and attack what the antibodies have marked as “foreign”. If your own personal set of T cells are especially aggressive, your antibody count can be low but destruction of the thyroid can still be severe. Likewise, if your T cells act more like lazy posers, your TPOAb’s can be high but destruction probably won’t be as severe as you might think. Again…. epigenetics at play.
Here’s where we take a bunny trail🐰 detour to talk a bit about gluten. Unless you live in an untouched area of the wilderness with no internet, you’ll likely know that many people have issues with gluten. Generally, you hear about gluten and digestive disturbances such as celiac disease (another autoimmune disorder affecting the small intestine), but did you know that gluten is commonly a trigger for worsening both Hashimoto’s (hypothyroid) and Grave’s (hyperthroid) disease?
 
Gluten is a sneaky little son of a biscuit eater, for multiple reasons:
🍞It takes very little to cause great distress in gluten hypersensitive individuals…… like less than 1/20th of a teaspoonful according to some experts, and even less than that according to others.
🍞The after effects of a single gluten consumption/use can be felt for weeks to months after the occurrence in the gluten hypersensitive individual.
🍞Gluten flies under the radar and hides in the most seemingly innocuous of places: soy sauce, corn flakes, salad dressings, marinades, seasonings, processed deli meats, body and beauty care products, and candy (glucose syrup or dextrose can come from wheat) are just a few on the list.
🍞Some thyroid medications (and other medications and supplements too!) contain gluten as an inert filler ingredient. Currently the FDA does not have strict labeling requirements regarding the labeling of gluten positive medications. At the time of this writing, all brands of levothyroxine (except Mylan which is certified gluten free) contain gluten, as does the thyroid medication Cytomel. (And yes, I agree. Why in the world would the pharmaceutical industry use inflammatory gluten as a common filler, especially in a medication for a population prone to be gluten sensitive? As I’ve said before, we’re worth more as a commodity if we are sick than we are if we are healthy friends.🙄)
🍞Other aliases of gluten include starch, pregelatinized starch, sodium starch glycolate, dextrin, dextrate, dextro-maltose, maltodextrin, sodium starch glycolate and more. Sneaky Pete, indeed!
 
Is all gluten bad? 🤔Resoundingly no. Although if someone is found to be gluten hypersensitive, it’s a good idea to avoid it as much as possible. Modern wheat and the ancient grain Einkorn are two very different grains containing different types and ratios of gluten. Not only is Einkorn considered to be vastly more nutritious than modern wheat, the troublesome type of gluten (the “D” genome) doesn’t appear to be present in Einkorn according to Dr. Davis, author of “Wheat Belly”. If you aren’t sure if Einkorn is a safe form of grain for you, try incorporating it into a food challenge. Einkorn is also much more highly digestible and because of its starchstructure, is less apt to cause blood sugar spikes.
 
For the non gluten hypersensitive individual there are a few more reasons to nosh on some tasty Young Living Einkorn spaghetti, pancakes, granola, or cereal…..Regular intake of gluten has been found to help mediate exposure to heavy metals. Conversely, those on a gluten free diet tend to have higher blood and urine levels of arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium ,commonly found in many well known lipstick brands,. If you already use YL Savvy Minerals lipstick💋, here’s a high five…. It’s toxin free!
 
For being a simple little butterfly🦋 looking structure in our neck we often don’t think about, the thyroid is certainly complex and so easily affected by outside influence!
 
xoxo~ liz
 

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