The Paleo Mom on Autoimmunity - Episode 19

April 9, 2014 — Sarah Ballantyne, PhD

with Kelly Brogan, MD

This week’s show features The PaleoMom’s extraordinary healing story. It started in earnest after her second child was born. Sarah was morbidly obese and suffering from a shocking list of diseases, including severe skin disorders, arthritis, asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, acid reflux, migraines, anxiety. She lost 120 pounds and became well.

Sarah needed to make certain connections before having the motivation to make big lifestyle changes:

#1: Food and sick. She wasn’t feeling good after she ate. She made the direct and unequivocal relationship between food and health. She flt better after 2 days and went off meds after 2 weeks.

#2: Thin and sick. Sarah started with a low carb diet and lost a bunch of weight. While some ailments went away, overall she still felt sick. sick. She realized you can be slender and unhealthy.

#3: Self-conscious and sick. She was embarrassed. Her severe skin problems were a visual flag that she wasn’t healthy.

Important insights:

1. It’s complicated. Health and healing are far more nuanced than a reductive narrative around genetics or even epigenetics. There is so much we don’t understand about the added interplay of hormones and bacteria, and the myriad ways they can affect genetic expression. Mom’s gut microbiome supports the bacterial diversity in babies and even the quality of breast milk. When the immune system is dysregulated, signals are misfiring; a part is overactive and a part is underactive.

2. It’s the nutrients. To recalibrate our bodies to heal after damage, we must expand our minds around the role of food. Important levers exist in the micro and macronutrients found in highly nutrient dense foods and vegetables. Sarah pays attention to the presence and proportion of essential vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and amino acids. She never thinks about calories anymore.

3. It’s more than the right pill. Getting what we need from food is far superior to supplementation. Nutrients synergize and interact in ways that synthetic vitamins just can’t match. Having said that, Sarah believes there’s a place for targeted supplementation. Kelly reminded us that we should expect far more than most pills offer, which is to outperform a placebo.

4. It’s surprising. Sarah eats a lot of organ meats and seafood; the amount and frequency may shock you. She tells us what she feeds her kids for dinner and the snacks they favor.

We are all hearing about the importance of our gut bacteria, and its relationship to immune health. Great! So what can we do to actually influence these bugs? Can lifestyle changes to reverse immune conditions like psoriasis and asthma? If so, what are the steps?

Kelly Brogan, MD interviews “The Paleo Mom” on the intersections between nutrition, immune health, and lifestyle factors, such as stress, sleep, and circadian rhythms.

How to eat in pregnancy for your child’s immune system.
Top three lifestyle recommendations for anyone with allergic or autoimmune conditions.
What are the most dangerous toxic foods?
What are the first food-related steps to healing?
What are the most important superfoods?

Sarah Ballantyne, PhD. is the blogger behind the award-winning ThePaleoMom.com; co-host of the syndicated top-rated The Paleo View Podcast; and author of critically-acclaimed The Paleo Approach and the upcoming The Paleo Approach Cookbook. She holds a doctorate degree in medical biophysics and researched innate immunity and inflammation before becoming a stay-at-home mom. The Paleo lifestyle contributed to her 120-pound weight loss and helped her heal from Irritable Bowel Syndrome, acid reflux, migraines, anxiety, asthma, allergies, psoriasis and an autoimmune skin condition called lichen planus. Sarah successfully transitioned her originally skeptic husband and two spirited young daughters to Paleo, too. Her passion for providing straightforward explanations of the science behind the paleo diet and its modifications, plus her love of food and cooking, and her dedication to her family form the foundations of her work.

Kelly Brogan, MD is Medical Director of Fearless Parent and mom of two. She is board certified in Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine, and Integrative and Holistic Medicine. Holistic living, environmental medicine, and nutrition are the bedrock of her functional medicine practice. She serves as medical advisor to GreenMedInfo, Pathways to Family Wellness, and Fisher Wallace. Kelly holds degrees from MIT and Cornell Medical School.