Autoimmune Health

  • Why Coffee Works for Some People (and Immune Herbs Don’t)

    There was a season of my life where I was taking a lot of herbs. Not recklessly. Intentionally. Thoughtfully. But still… a lot. I was navigating autoimmune issues, trying to support my immune system without suppressing it. Some things clearly helped. Lion’s mane felt supportive. Eleuthero felt steadying. Certain blends made me feel more resilient.

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  • Why Your Friend Can Live on Energy Drinks and You Can’t

    On MTHFR, COMT, and Building a Resilient Terrain I have a habit of reading food labels like I’m trying to crack some hidden code. To be fair, modern nutrition and ingredient labels do contain quite a lot of enigmatic information. Years ago, when my husband and I were coworkers, he watched me in a grocery

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  • When Ashwagandha Backfires (And Why That Doesn’t Mean It’s a Bad Herb)

    Last summer we went camping. Four kids. Smoke drifting through the trees. Spotty sleep. Electrolytes in the bag because I wasn’t going to lean full zero water filter without replenishing. You know, the restorative wilderness reset. Somewhere in the stretch leading up to that annual camping trip, I switched from Rasa Bold to their cacao

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  • The Summer Keto Gave Me a Rash So Bad I Couldn’t Wear Deodorant

    Let me tell you about the summer keto betrayed me. Not the “my pants don’t fit” kind of betrayal.Not the “wow, I miss fruit” kind of betrayal.No — the kind where I developed a rash so aggressive I couldn’t wear deodorant for three months straight. Yes. The whole summer.The season of sunshine, sweat, and sticky

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  • You’re Not Broken. You’re Inflamed.

    When I couldn’t run without pain… I knew something deeper was going on. It started as knee pain while I was packing to move to Northern Ireland. My husband had already gone ahead for work after our visas were denied, and I was managing life solo with our three young kids, preparing to reunite after

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  • Castor Oil Packs

    A gentle drainage ritual that finally made consistency possible Castor oil packs are one of those tools that quietly work — when they’re used consistently. I’ve used them on and off for years, starting long before my postpartum season and Nutritional Therapy training, largely because of Hashimoto’s and chronic inflammation. I knew they helped. I

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  • Red Light Therapy for Thyroid Health (What Changed Over Time)

    This post documents personal experience informed by published research. It is not medical advice. Thyroid medication should only be adjusted with a prescribing clinician. Why I tried red light on my thyroid I didn’t start with a device or a protocol. I started with the research. I came across multiple human studies using photobiomodulation (also

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  • New Wine, New Wineskins: Why My Work (and This Space) Changed

    A New Thing Originally published August 27, 2020 · Updated with context in 2026 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.” — Mark 2:22 For months, I had

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  • Immune Support with Autoimmune Disease: What I’d Do Differently Now

    Originally published April 2020 · Updated for clarity, context, and current recommendations In early 2020, like many families, we were navigating uncertainty with limited reliable information. My household includes autoimmune disease, asthma, and kids who historically don’t tolerate inflammation well—so I paid attention early. What I didn’t know at the time was that we had

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