19 Comments

I think I've told you this before, but much like the old Neil Diamond song " Except for the names and a few other changes, you could say the same things about me. The story's the same one". I don't have MCAS, but an exceptional intolerance to the Neurotoxin Manufactured free Glutamates.

Your story of perseverance is inspiring. Keep pushing it.

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Thank you so much for that. Have you ever tried brain retraining?

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Lisa I’m so grateful for you checking out my Substack. I’ve been on a 20+ year long road of mystery illness. I’m working on an article so that I can share my journey with healing. I have so much compassion for your story and know how difficult it can be living with a chemical sensitivity. One of our favorite purchases in our home is our iQ air purifier. One of the components of my healing was learning the truth that my body was not attacking itself. Medical research and science is spending billions of dollars on their theory that our genes are to blame. With expensive therapies, treatments and more it is a great way for them to continue profiting off the chronically ill. I refuse to believe our genes are to blame (after all autoimmune is just a theory they’ve never found proof that the body is attacking itself). The Industrial Revolution brought a new class of chemicals that we are all exposed now to daily. Our liver was never made to filter out pesticides like DDT and toxic heavy metals that are now found in our air, water and land. We’re up against so much in this world today. Medical research and science is refusing to put money into finding the root cause of these illnesses. Maybe it is because they would then have to admit they are to blame for the epidemic of chronic illness.

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Yes, so much yes. You speak the truth. Welcome to Brunette Gardens, and let’s continue the conversation!

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Hi Lisa,

Thank you for this heartful and helpful post and for sharing about your challenging journey. I have true celiac and when I got covid, it turned into long Covid such that I became much more sensitive to histamine inducing foods during that time. Thankfully, my doctor is an herbalist and knew even in late 2021 how to approach what I was experiencing and I am now 98% recovered. I am back to mostly eating what I want as long as I eat real food and mostly avoid sugar and alcohol and of course gluten. As a result, honestly, I feel healthier than I did before all of this started.

In answer to your question about neuroplasticity, I did find neurofeedback helpful in settling the over activation in my brain from Covid. What helped even more was NARM (NeuroAffective Relational Model) therapy. It's a form of psychotherapy that acknowledges that for some of us, any uptick in aliveness is interpreted by our nervous system as a threat. This is often due to really early trauma, say in utero to six months. Yes, NARM can really help with pre-verbal trauma when it's a fit for someone and in my personal experience, the change is lasting. Through this work, my baseline level of activation has gone down probably 80%. This work isn't for everyone because it's deep. It focuses on how we learned to relate to ourselves rather than telling story after story of what happened. This focus creates agency and internal structure that feels very settling and empowering to me.

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Thank you so much 🙏 for sharing your story. You help give encouragement to others.

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What a great post on what is a minefield of a topic to navigate. I agree that a single bullet approach is never the answer, and that consuming produce from clean food sources and managing stress are top of the list for (as I like to call it) "staying within my bandwidth." I very much appreciate the shout out as I feel I've barely touched the sides when it comes to how herbs can help with managing this situation. The key I think lies in creating a protocol that treats the individual and not the condition if any real progress is to be made.

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I like that phrase, "Staying within my bandwidth." I've been thinking a lot lately about pacing. Looking forward to our upcoming collaboration, Sarah!

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What a fabulous informative post. Thankfully I am not allergic to anything other than a couple of medications, skin is my main issue, dry and excema prone, and definitely nothing scented and no soaps. The trouble you have gone to through your life to help yourself health wise is a credit to you, and now you have passed on that information to others.

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Thank you so much for that, Sally. I appreciate your comments so much. Sounds like you've also figured out what your body wants as far as hygiene and environment go. I've often wondered why we're so averse to natural smells! My best to you.

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Here is FOOD for thought about bypassing loads of big pharma and supplement products when addressing auto-immune issues.

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I'm hoping it goes well. It was something I wanted to try years ago and then was diagnosed with celiac and thought it was something I couldn't do. My friend got a successful start going and gave me a baby yesterday, and it rose beautifully overnight! So Friday will be my first time cooking with it and my kids are excited. They love sourdough but no gluten flour can be in our house or it contaminates everything. This should be a best of both worlds for everyone as I don't really eat grains anymore but then I can still bake healthily for them and hopefully with the fermentation it digests well for me too.

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I'm really excited for you, Sarah! Keep me posted. I'd really like to know how it goes.

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I just started the venture into gluten free sourdough (since celiac is my autoimmune disease... 😉)

We just also ventured into raw milk. Hoping our health continues to improve!

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I'll be interested to hear how that GF sourdough works for you, Sarah. I've seen some good reports on that front via Permies.com. And raw milk is definitely a win. Thanks for the interaction here and IRL - I'm glad you're getting results. Seems like we're both onto the right path! All the best.

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Great synopsis. A lot of useful info here. Everything this economy does not want people to know. Encouraging to hear you are taking charge of your health and teaching about it.

mRNA for 20 years was known to trigger autoimmune condition. So I imagine there are a lot of people out there who need this information. Even if a lot of them are not going to want to hear it.

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I think you're right, William. In my neuroplasticity research, I've seen a surge of folks with what they're calling "long COVID" that might be caused by the mRNA shots or the virus itself, or both. It's a troubling issue, to say the least. I hope this is helpful to people, as it's been a very long, often frustrating journey for me, and I'd like to help others avoid some of the missteps, especially since our institutional "experts" are sometimes actively promoting those very same missteps.

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Mar 3
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Anthony and I both aspire to retire 😀.

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Ha, ha, awesome! Thanks for the Spotify link, too; right in line with what I’m trying.

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