Stories of Self-Healing with Nurse Kristin Nurse Kristin

In the episode of Stories of Self-Healing, you are going to hear Joyce Hale share her story about overcoming Lupus. Just a few years ago, Joyce’s Lupus had advanced to the point where her medications were not stopping the progression of her illness and almost every organ in her body attacked by this disease. She was having daily seizures which were causing her to face the reality that soon, she would no longer be able to work.
Joyce already had a titanium plate holding one side of her jaw together and was recently informed that she would need to get another plate to hold the other side of her jaw together. Doctors told her that the only way avoid this was to get her Lupus under control.
But after years of struggling with this disease, her health started to improve. In a last ditch effort to “try anything”, Joyce decided to try eating a Whole Food Plant Based Diet. After only a couple of weeks, her seizures lessened, she was able to reduce the doses on some medications.
Over the next couple of years, Joyce dug deeper into plant based nutrition and today, Joyce is Lupus Free and 100% Medication Free. And today, she is here to share her journey and story with you.

One thing about a vegan diet that I find really interesting is how many subcultures there are within it. There are plant based vegans, vegans who follow a fruit only diet, there’s the high carb low fat approach, and there are also people who follow a potato diet.
Have you heard about this kind of diet? Where you eat only or mostly potatoes?  I know what you might be thinking “But potatoes make you fat”...
Well, Today I have Jeannine Elder with me who is going to share her story about following a potato diet. In February of 2017, Jeannine ate only potatoes for an entire month. She lost 8 pounds that month and was able to diminish her junk food cravings and reset her taste buds.
Now, a year later, Jeannine still follows a modified potato diet and is continuing to lose weight.
Jeannine has also struggled with Hashimoto's Disease which is the most common type of thyroid disorder in America, affecting over 14 million people. Today Jeannine is going to share all about her journey with the potato diet, how this diet and approach have affected her Hashimoto's and what she is doing to help others have their own health transformation.
One thing I really love about Jeannine’s story is that she didn’t have this crazy overnight health transformation. She didn’t see this rapid change in her health but she didn’t give up on her health either.
Jeannine is now helping numerous men and women achieve their health goals with a potato diet and she is also helping women with autoimmune conditions realize that they too can achieve a healthy weight with the power of the potato.

Just a few years ago, Eric weighed over 320 lbs and was spending over $1000 per month on medications for a host of health problems, including Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and more.

Then one day Eric decided to pay a visit to a Naturopathic doctor, and this doctor recommended that he make some lifestyle changes, which included diet changes and also, adopting a dog.
 
In this interview, you'll discover how Eric went from rock bottom to finding happiness, joy, and health in life, with help from his dog Peety.

Dr. Lawenda, a Family Practice Provider for Kaiser Permanente, struggled with obesity and had a family history of diabetes and heart disease. Both his father and grandfather suffered heart attacks at a young age and Dr. Lawenda worried that if he didn't make some serious improvements to his own health, that he was destined for a life of similar health struggles.
 
Not learning much about nutrition in medical school, Dr. Lawenda tackled his weight with the only two strategies he knew, exercise and portion control. After years of yo-yo dieting, he felt like a failure and like he was simply genetically destined to be overweight and sick.
 
After haphazardly stumbling into the science of plant based nutrition, Dr. Lawenda was curious. He found the concept of eating whole plant foods without portion control very logical and appealing. He tried it out and was really blown away by his results. He began dropping weight at a steady pace and after 8 months, had lost 75 pounds.
 
After having his own health transformation, he wanted to share this plant based approach with his own patients. 
 
In this episode, you will hear Dr. Lawenda discuss:
 
- The types of transformations that he has seen in his own patients
- How he went from Yo-Yo Dieting to losing 75 pounds and keeping it off
- Practical tips to make plants the center of your dinner plate
 
And much more....
 
This is an interesting episode with a lot of take aways so, if you are sitting down, be sure to grab a pen and take notes

Dr. Aggarwal is a Board Certified Cardiologist.  She has expertise in heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and prevention.

Her path in prevention started with her own illness when she was diagnosed with RA. It was then, with the fear she would not practice medicine again, that she found her path to whole body medicine.
In this interview we discuss:
-Being Diagnosed with RA
-Going from MD to becoming a patient
-What is the Leaky Gut and what is it's association with auto-immune disease and inflammatory illnesses
-The impact of dairy and inflammation and it's connection to Leaky Gut
-The work and research she is doing at University of Florida on the gut biome
- How she has been able to heal from RA with a plant based diet.

Kate, like myself, is a nurse, she was living a busy life like many of us do and one day, she developed a cough. Now, this was no ordinary cough and it developed into a lung condition which put Kate on the lung transplant list in a short amount of time.
Not only that, Kate quickly developed Diabetes and heart failure. Kate was told she had 2-5 years left to live.
A stroke of luck led Kate to a plant based lifestyle and today Kate is thriving and contributes to the whole food plant based community as a Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Life Instructor at Fork Smart.