#180 The Power of Healing Stories with Casey Hibbard

The information provided in this podcast is educational and not intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions.

Dr. Donnie Wilson struggled for decades to solve her numerous health issues and heal her body. But with focused determination, she healed herself. And in doing so, she discovered the Dr. Donnie stress recovery Protocol. On this show, you're going to hear from doctors, nutritionists, and Experts along with Dr. Donnie, who will give practical advice and wisdom to help heal your body. This is how humans heal.

Hi, and welcome to how humans heal. I'm Dr. Donni Wilson, and today I'm excited to introduce you to Casey Hibbard. She is the founder of Rebuilding My Health, the website and the podcast. And really, she's a journalist who became a storyteller about health and healing, starting with her healing story. And now she shares the healing stories of many others and looks for what are the common denominators of healing amongst those stories to be able to inspire and support others along the way. So thank you so much for joining me today, Casey.

Yeah, thank you for having me, Dr. Donnie. And I'm excited to be on How Humans Heal. I think it's my favorite name for a podcast. I love it. Brilliant.

I'm so glad to hear that. You know, it seemed to me one day, you know, I'd been thinking about a podcast for so long, and I'm like, what do I really want to be able to do with this and share and inspire and. And that's how one day I was like, oh, it's called How Humans Heal. So it just.

Perfect.

And that's exactly what you do, is you share stories of how humans heal. I mean, tell us more, like, about your healing journey. I mean, especially after being a journalist for, what, more than 30 years, you were doing. You were telling stories from a journalist perspective, and then you kind of shifted and started using your storytelling abilities in this way. So tell us how that that happened.

Yeah, yeah. I've been a journalist and a corporate writer for a long time, writing for companies as well. So, yeah, so it began like these things often do with my own health story. After the birth of my son about 11 or so years ago, my health started to go off the rails. And actually, one of the common things that I see with is, particularly women that I interview is after they have kids, it's. Things start and I'm unraveling. So, you know, it started with digestive issues and progressed to fatigue and weakness and joint pain and brain fog. And when the inflammation was really at its worst, my. I was losing vision in one eye, like my one Eye was blurry, which, you know, is the point where it gets really scary and you're like, all right, what am I going to do now? Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. Fortunately, an optometrist was, you know, smart enough to be like, you know, this is, this is inflammation. Because I was still kind of in the conventional medical framework at that time and was, you know, really not getting, getting answers to any of this. I had autoimmunity that was kind of escalating. Like my autoimmune markers were going up. Didn't get a specific diagnosis just ever, you know, for autoimmunity. It was just the, the markers were going up.

As a lot of times that's the case with autoimmunity. Right. It just starts to, like, a lot of patients will say to me, okay, I'm, I'm showing as positive Ana, but it's not meeting in criteria of specific autoimmune condition and it doesn't meet the criteria of needing a medication necessarily. But you don't want it to get worse. You want to deal with it before it gets worse.

Exactly, exactly. I was, you know, watching it kind of go up and so I, yeah, I was like, I've got to rein this in. So ultimately I kind of started going outside of conventional medicine and found my underlying causes, which is, you know, now what I know you really, you have to do. And I had quite, quite the list, particularly gut. I had small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, leaky gut, food sensitivities, H. Pylori candida parasites. My pancreas wasn't working so well.

Also found to have, you know, like, infections that were probably coming back, like Epstein Barr and others. Um, so I, you know, started this process which really, you know, ultimately has taken a few years of kind of, you know, addressing the things, peeling back the layers. I went on almost immediately, went on an anti inflammatory diet and saw symptom relief like within days. So, so that, you know, throughout the entire journey has been instrumental and, you know, yeah, just, just huge for that and worked on my gut infections kind of one, one after the other. I also did some, some toxin work, you know, addressing toxins, high levels of glyphosate. Even though I'd been eating organic or mostly organic for, you know, a long time. I was really surprised to see that plus a number of other, you know, all the other chemicals like flame retardants like you and I have talked about.

And you basically, you're just peeling back the layers and you're like, oh, and here's this, and here's this. And no wonder the autoimmunity was there when you start to see everything that was underlying.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I kind of like this visual or this mental picture of a sponge, like. Like I'm this sponge that is soaked up all these toxins, and I'm, like, squeezing it out over, you know, a year or two, just kind of trying to, like, slowly rid my body of everything. And at one point, lead was high, I think, because we lived near an airport for a little while, and that area is testing high for. For lead. And so, yeah, just really kind of working my way through all these things. And then, you know, symptoms were getting better and better, and then ultimately I was watching my. My autoimmune markers go down to the point where the last time I had them tested, my doctor said I didn't have any signs of autoimmunity anymore. So.

Yay.

Yeah. So, you know, gratifying and breath. Breathtaking to. To hear that and to see that, you know, after. After everything, you know, I've worked through. So. Yeah, but that inspired me to start telling other people's stories, really, because I was coming across these incredible stories that I felt like were. Were buried in private Facebook groups or other places, you know, on Instagram, people were talking about, like, what, you know, you. You reversed this, you know, these conditions that we typically don't think are reversible or fixable.

So I was like, these stories have to see the light of day. So I just started very slowly with, like, asking friends, you know, can I. Can I interview you and capture your story? And now I've got hundreds of stories on my site and 50 podcast episodes, and I'm just continuing to discover, you know, more amazing stories and capture them.

That's wonderful. And I mean, like, I'm curious, with the background of journalism, how do you find that comes into play when you're interviewing people and with the work that you're doing?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, the interviewing aspect is. Has been critical, really, just to sort of, you know, how. Know what questions it asks and kind of dig in there and try to uncover the story. It's. It's like almost like an investigative process, like, you know, where, you know, what can I do to kind of, like, uncover the story and, like, the nuggets of the story that are going to be the most. The most relevant and all that. So kind of, yeah, those skills absolutely come in into play.

So much more rewarding to be telling these types of stories because my journalism experience was business. Like, I was I was a business reporter for a long time and then, you know, most of the corporate writing I've done has been like technology and business. So this is very, very different and so, so rewarding.

So it started to be like a passion for you where you're like, oh, this is so interesting. I want to know more. And I can see where, I can see where when I in like the work that I do as a practitioner, when I sit down with a patient and I'm, you know, asking them questions as part of their intake and their subjective history, in some ways it is like I could see where there's a crossover with journalism of like how to ask the questions so that you can get the information you need to really get to the points that are important for their, for understanding what were the original causes and what's going to help them heal. And even from your, like here you are doing it from a non medical perspective, but it's like you're actually coming to find some of the same sort of common underlying causes as you listen to people's stories. Tell us more about that. Like what are you noticing as you listen to hundreds of healing stories?

Yeah, yeah, that's been super interesting and fascinating is really that across all these different conditions and diagnoses that the themes, the common themes just are the same. You know, the same things come up over and over again in terms of, you know, kind of some somewhat what the underlying causes are, but really what the fixes are. There's probably, I can probably break it down to four or five different major things that people are doing. I mean, number one would be diet changes. And I know you know this, almost everybody I speak with found healing usually within days by, by making some diet changes. You know, and it's not. Yeah, and it's not like one size fits all. I mean there are certain things that I hear over and over like gluten, dairy and sugar. But other than that it can be pretty individualized. You may have, you know, certain sensitivities. Like one woman yesterday, she was like pork. Pork sends me into a flare. So you just, you know, you don't know, but try to help for people.

To identify what are their, what's. What are the, how are foods influencing their health and how they discovered that? And of course we know that, right? Our, our food can be our medicine, but our, depending on what we're eating and how our body responds to it, it can be a major source of inflammation and illness too. And it's like, but I think sometimes that is a real Wake up. For people to realize, like, wow, like I was talking to someone today where she initially, she thought, oh my gosh, some of my favorite foods that I eat every day, it turns out, were causing all this inflammation and making me sick. And at first she could be like, bummed that she can't. She needs to take a break from her favorite foods. But then she, she said to me, oh. But then I realized, wow, this means that I've been eating in a way that's causing me to feel awful. And now I have the information I need to change that. And so she was able to shift it into this really positive perspective of like, now the foods I thought were my favorite foods are really not my favorite foods. They were working against me. And do you find that people have that kind of, you know, sort of like realization that they have with their food?

Yeah, yeah. And I think it kind of boils down to feeling like there's some control, you know, because instead of this feeling like helpless, like I, you know, I have this condition, there's nothing I can do about it. All of a sudden you're being told, well, coconut is wildly spiking. Your inflammation or gluten or whatever it is, makes you go, hey, well that's something I can do. I can have some level of control over this, this inflammation. So absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, definitely see that. And you know, and it's interesting, you know, there's like, some people that find success with like a carnivore diet. Some people are more plant based. So it really is very individualized, I find, but, but, but so critical. Probably 99% of the stories have, have a diet element and where they saw change because of. Of food changes. Wow.

And what, what are some of the other.

So another would be gut healing is, is absolutely central. As I know, you know, my own anxiety. I've had lifelong anxiety and that pretty much way after I yelled my gut. So yeah, that, that was interesting. I've some. Another woman I interviewed, Jane Hogan, I know, you know, her rheumatoid arthritis kind of went away after she addressed sibo. Like that small intestinal bacterial overgrowth was really causing the inflammation that was contributing to her ra.

So treat, you know. Yeah, kind of treating all those gut infections and dysbiosis is, Is really huge. Yeah. Like I said, for things that you would never expect would be gut related. So.

Yeah. And the research now is really. I mean, there's more and more research show demonstrating that, but from a naturopathic perspective, you know, it's. It's been Sort of the mantra all along was, you know, we have to treat the gut first. But now we know. Yeah. Not only is it like, how well are you digesting and absorbing your nutrients, but also how are your gut bacteria doing? And they all have such influence on the nervous system as well as all the hormones and. Right. So it, it really, I think the message from the gut is that it's so interconnected with everything else. So if you have imbalance in the gut, then autoimmunity is more likely, viruses are more likely.

Anxiety, depression are more likely, like everything else becomes more likely. And when we heal the gut, everything else gets better. So it's like. Yeah, that's interesting and makes sense to me that it, that you hear that in their stories, that they're like, oh, when I figured out what needed to happen with my digestion, that was like a turning point with their health. Yeah.

Or skin issues. You know, all these things. You know, they're going to the dermatologist and they're getting creams to put on their skin and it's not helping. But as soon as they heal their gut and maybe get the dysbiosis balanced out. Yeah, their skin is better. Yeah. So it's pretty fascinating. Another one is clearing toxins. As I mentioned in my own story.

There was a gentleman. Go ahead and mention his story. Who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. And there's, there's this test you have to take at the doctor, the, the MOCA test. He had scored a 21 out of 30 and he was diagnosed with mid level Alzheimer's and lost his driver's license when he started seeing a functional medicine doctor and they uncovered the causes and he lived near an airport and, and jet fuel was an issue. Like he was, they were finding that in his body. So, you know, that was, you know, the entire picture for him for Alzheimer's, but it was, it was a part of his picture. And, you know, he cleaned that up, balanced his hormones, went on a keto diet and scored a 29 on his mocha the next time he took it and got his driver's license back. Wow.

Oh, that's what I would think. Know that, that, that the nervous system can heal even when we start to see signs of dementia. It can heal when we identify, like, what is affecting it. I've seen so many patients with neurological conditions, even if it's whether it's like dementia type or degenerative or neuropathy or depression or, you know, even seizure disorders that come to see me and they're like, Is it even possible to heal? Because there, again, so many practitioners, they're not used to people recovering from these things because they are not addressing these underlying causes. So it's not, you know what I mean? They're just giving a, maybe a medication to prevent the progression. But when we. I love that, that you're hearing these stories of people who said, no, I'm not taking that as an answer. I'm gonna. If it means I have to change my health, if it means I have to move my home, if it means I need to detoxify, if I need, you know, I'm willing to do it. And then they end up with these transformations in their house, in the. And like that. That's it. You're right. These are important stories to be able to share so other people can be inspired by them and know it's possible. It's almost like, I mean, yes, they could be written up as clinical cases and submitted to journals, but then, you know, like, most people aren't reading those medical journals anyway. So, like, what you're doing is sharing it online. So hopefully people see these stories and say, hey, if this person did it, I can do it too, you know. And do you find that people write into you and say, okay, yeah, yeah, yes, that's.

Yeah, I love those emails. You know, when someone says, yeah, I, I found this story and because of it, I, I knew to look deeper or I knew to, you know, go outside of conventional medicine because I think for people kind of stay in that framework for so long and are not getting answers. And you know, sometimes they, yeah, they just little extra push to go, okay, you know, other people are getting answers, other people are getting help. So it really, you know, I do strive to be this, this beacon of hope and inspiration for folks to, number one, you know, know that they can heal and then have some, some ideas. You know, it's not for someone to take someone else's framework and go, I'm going to do just what someone else does, but it's just to go, hey, this, these are maybe some avenues to go down or the types of practitioners I can reach out to and types of tests to look at for all of that. Because, you know, the tests are entirely different as well. The lab testing for, you know, naturopathic or functional medicine approaches. So. And then, you know, I have to mention stress as well. I know that's close to, to your heart. So so many people, it's almost gotten to the point where when I'm interviewing somebody, I'm waiting for them to Say what? They're stressful. The triggering event was like.

I got a divorce or had a death in the family or moved or lost my job or you know, sometimes all of these things all at once or had had a baby. And so often it is a triggering event or sustained, you know, other stress from a relationship or work or whatever. But people have to figure out how to manage that to heal and you know, have those tools to manage their stress or get out of those stressful situations. And that was one thing that was surprising to me was how often people said I did all these other things, but I didn't really heal until I got out of the stressful situation.

I'm really excited to open enrollment in my new 14 day detox program. It's based on my experience spending 16 days in the Amazon and I realized I really want to be able to support all of you to safely and effectively detox from home. The 14D detox includes a kit with protein powder, including antioxidants to support liver detoxification as well as an anti inflammatory diet plan, daily videos and tips from me, as well as my self care notebook and lots of encouragement to spend time in nature to reset your circadian rhythm. I want you to able to detox your mind, body and spirit so you can get back to balance and move forward in your life with resilience. I can't wait for you to join me in this transformational process. Yeah, that's interesting, right, because we sometimes we, we kind of leave that for last, you know, we, we kind of go okay, can I, you know, do take care of these other things while still in a stressful situation. And, and you know, from, from my perspective too, I look at it as how has the stress affected? Like to me the way I look at it is the toxins are stress also. So detoxifying from toxins is part of getting rid of that as a source of stress. And even because stress of all types, whether toxins or psychological or psychoemotional stress affect digestion. So the more we heal the digestion, we're actually helping the body recover from stress effects of stress. And so it's like to me it ends up coming back to stress in the end anyway. You know, it's like, okay, and even from diet, if we're eating dietary, you know, foods that are a stress to our body, okay, so we take out the stressful foods, we take out the stressful toxins, we, we help our body recover from the stress, exposure from gut healing and rebalancing hormones and nutrient Deficiencies. And so, and we ultimately.

And this is, I think, what we got to talk about when I. Because I. You interviewed me on your podcast as well, we talked about how for me and my healing process and recovering from migraines, I also found that I needed to figure out how to heal my adrenal glands, which is essentially our main stress responders. Right. So, of course, if we're affected by stress, we're gonna. Our cortisol and adrenaline and neurotransmitters are gonna be affected. We've gotta figure out how to help them get re. Optimized. So, yes, it's like how to get ourselves out of extremely stressful situations, but also how to help our bodies recover our healthy stress response. How do we get our cortisol, adrenaline and neurotransmitters? Do you hear other people talking about that?

Like Andrea Lutely? Yeah. Yeah. Like if, if I did a search on my site for adrenals, like, dozens and dozens of stories would come up. You know, it's not. And it's like a piece of the puzzle for so many people to be able to heal that. And, yeah, I mean, it makes sense that our adrenals are so stressed because our, our lives are so stressed. But I think, I love that the message you're putting out and the education you're putting out about adrenals, because I don't think enough people know, because almost, almost anybody I speak with kind of outside of the health world, when I talk about adrenals, they're like, I have no idea what that is. You know, maybe I've heard it before, but I really don't know what that is. So I think, I think that education is so critical.

Yeah. And as you said, being able to then get the access to the practitioners and the testing that can help people to get the. Because it's not one size fits all, as you mentioned earlier, the diet's not one size fits all. The gut healing and what needs to happen is not the same for everyone. Even the adrenal healing is not the same for everyone. So how do we find the practitioners and the testing that's going to give us the information so we can really create an precise and successful protocol. And it sounds like in your case you found someone or some people who guided you successfully, which is happy to hear that.

Yeah, it's been a mix. You know, it's sort of like, you know, I had like a detox person that kind of helped me through that. I had a gut healing person. So it wasn't Necessarily one person, you.

Just sort of said, okay, let me check. And I see that from other people too. I'm like, okay, they may choose this person for this and this and this, and you start to kind of walk the path and try to put the pieces together. And, you know, what I, what I try to do then is try to create it in my website. And it's, it's, it's challenging as a single, is a single practitioner in a single, you know, because.

People aren't necessarily looking for the whole healing journey. They're usually looking for, okay, how do I just fix my digestion or how do I just fix my autoimmunity? But it ends up, no matter what, it's gonna be this journey. And so what I'm working on creating on, on my website is like this. Where do you begin? How do you go through diet changes, gut healing, detoxification, adrenal recovery, so that you go through these, this journey that ends up getting you all the way there instead of having to piecemeal and.

Figure it out on your own?

Because I think that's unfortunately with the way. And it's not just the United States, right? I mean, are most of your stories from the U.S. would you say?

Yeah, yeah, they are for sure.

But I, I, I work with people around the world, and I know that this is not just the United States, that the medical system is leaving so many people in this spot of sort of having to figure out how to heal themselves. Right. Like, and do you, do people talk about that like they're sort of hitting that frustration of, like, why is it that I'm in this situation where I'm going to have to figure this out myself? Because, yes, standard medical system isn't helping me through this.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so many of the people I speak with have seen 20 doctors before they decide I need to, need to look outside of this framework to, to get some answers? Yeah, absolutely. So, and then, you know, the last woman I interviewed for my podcast, she diagnosed herself with celiac, like, in her 20s. She'd been having lifelong issues, you know, digestive and skin and, etc, and she, she found like a book in the library and diagnosed herself with celiac. Like, why is this so hard, you know, for people to get answered? You know, so she went to a doctor and said, would you please do this test on me and, and see if we can get an answer? And she had celiac. So, you know, it's super frustrating, but it, it ends up being that these folks are really empowered. They're very Educated. They really research and study because they feel like they have to. To get answers. I'm sure. I'm sure you see that with your patients. Like, a lot of your patients are probably very, very knowledgeable about. About all this stuff.

It varies. You know, there's some people where they're like, they're just starting to kind of go, okay, what do I need? What do.

Yeah.

And. And then there are some people who, yeah, have been through, like, having to sort of like, learn it a lot on their own. And it is. It's interesting because as a practitioner, then I really do think it's a. I see myself differently than I think some practitioners or some doctors or even naturopathic doctors see themselves. Right. Like, I think that sort of the. What I consider the old view would be, you know, like, the doctor is the know all, be all, end all. You know, like, you go in and then it's like just what doctor says to do. But now, because there is so much information available on the Internet and social media and people feel like they need to be researching for themselves because they're not getting the information or answers from their standard medical appointments. So people are more educated. And so when I'm meeting with patients, they. It's. It's a. It's more of a. A sharing. Like, I look at myself as. I'm a resource. Like, I have all this knowledge and clinical experience in my brain, and I want people to be able to have access to it for their own healing journey. So I see my role as a practitioner, you know, potentially differently than what people might experience in other clinics or medical settings because I say to them, hey, I'm here for you to have a. To not be stressed by the experience, for me to help educate. Help get you the information you need. So, so. And still the. The. I want to acknowledge they're their own health advocate and they're the one who's making the changes and decisions. I'm just giving the information that can help them along that path, hopefully more efficiently and more successfully. So it's like, it's a different role as a practitioner. Do you see that too with some of the other stories?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That it is collaborative, you know, because people, you know, you kind of come to. Often you come to your practitioner. Yeah. With. With research or insights. You know, I think, you know, I. It's my instinct, you know, or gut feeling that this could be an issue. You know, like, I personally, like, it's my gut feeling that Epstein Barr was behind some stuff and, you know, Turns out it was. But, like, I appreciate that the practitioner that I worked with for that is collaborative and was like, you know, yes, let's explore that path and work on this together. And it's so important, like you said, and making people feel, you know, like they're, yeah, they're being nurtured in this healing journey.

For sure.

And I think being not there has to be maybe some. I was going to use, I was going to make up a word like a dis. Identification with a diagnosis. Almost like, like, yes, it's helpful to know what's going on and give it a name. But to the extent that I don't know if you found this with some of the stories that you've, that you've listened to and documented, like, I think sometimes what can happen in a conventional medical system is we, there's a diagnosis made, you know, then that's submitted to insurance and, but then the person feels kind of like stuck with that diagnosis. Whereas even in your case, for example, you reversed autoimmunity, so no longer do you have the diagnosis of autoimmunity. So it's, it's a different, it's like it's acknowledging you as a human, Casey, and your health and your immune system had been in a state of autoimmunity, but it wasn't a permanent. You know, it can change. And that's a different view of the diagnosis. I'm interested if, if some of your stories bring that out.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, and that's one thing, one message that really I want to get out there is that with almost all of the chronic illnesses that it feels like with almost all of them out there, they can be reversed. Because I, you know, sure. Like, I have tons of autoimmune reversal stories. I've got Parkinson's, Alzheimer's.

Yeah. Just, you know, anything. Many, many of the things that we think are chronic, like, it's just, you know, once you, you get that diagnosis, it's all downhill from there. You just manage your symptoms and that I have not found that to be the case with, with so many people. They are, you know, getting into what, you know, what you would call remission. Lupus. Ms. I've got tons of Ms. Stories. Just so, so inspiring to, to see that happen.

Absolutely. Yeah. Because then people can sort of step back and rethink and say, hey, is this really the definition of myself or my life? Like, who am I really in this life? And, and it doesn't have to be the same as my medical diagnosis. The diagnosis can Change. And at the same time I always find that there's an important like, level of acceptance too. Of okay. He. Because if as much as we might battle our bodies, maybe you hear that in the stories too. You know, like a lot of times I find that we can, we almost are like, well, why is my body doing this? You know, now the person is in odds with their own body process. How do we reconnect and go, oh, what is my body trying to tell me and what do I need to do to help my body? Right. There's, that's a shift in the mindset.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, it is absolutely a shift.

And you have, there has to be.

Belief, you know, and I don't want this to sound too woo woo. But that's another underlying theme is that you have to kind of, it has to be on a foundation of believing that it's possible because. And it's not just the believing, but it's. If you believe it's possible, you're going to take steps and kind of have that outlook in life that it's possible. You're going to, you know, do, you know, dietary changes, you're going to try to move your body, you're going to meditate or, you know, whatever you're going to do. All the things that kind of are in line with that belief and it's powerful. That mindset is, is super powerful across, across all the stories that I've done.

Wow, that's so, that's so amazing. So I mean, I'm, I'm going to be sharing here where people can go to your website is that, that, that's where they can go and find the stories and listen into your podcast and how do you like, do you recommend people just like sort of like listen a few at a time and you know, just go back and listen through them Is what I imagine like a library of stories.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, you can search on there, you know, there's a search function. You can search by, you know, condition, you can search by symptoms or you can just start, sort of start, you know, browsing through. They're kind of grouped by like gut health or brain, neurological, autoimmune, that sort of thing. But I think many people will start to find that like there's, there's so much crossover, as I said, you know, you may have digestive issues, but, you know, it's kind of bordering on, you know, the brain stuff because people have brain fog or whatnot. But, but yeah. So, you know, there's the site with, with A bunch of stories that people can browse through and then the podcast as well. Rebuilding my health radio. So, and I'm trying to kind of COVID a broad, broad spectrum. I've got Lyme stories and mold stories and.

Are there any other stories you wanted to share?

You know, one that just like, kind of has always really touched me. A woman named Shannon who had six autoimmune diagnoses, including lupus and, you know, Hashimoto's, and I think fibromyalgia, which I'm not sure is autoimmune, but definitely a big diagnosis. And she just started making small steps. I mean she, her doctors had really given her like years. They were like, you have, you know, maybe years left and not much quality in those, those years. She was almost bedridden and she just was like, I am going to start making some small changes. And she started with diet and, and then went from there. She, she did a year of diet and then the next year she's like, okay, I'm going to start moving my body. And then she started, you know, addressing stress and trauma, some past trauma and kind of peeling back the layers, as you said. And within, even within 18 months when she was still doing the work, she didn't have symptoms anymore of, of anything. So just to see, with lifestyle changes, just, just with lifestyle changes, she was able to make that much progress. So it was just so breathtaking to, to see that. And.

Yeah, and you know, and everybody that I speak with wants to share their story because they, they want to pass the hope along as well. So it's just like this sort of, you know, domino effect. Powerful.

And to think that it's sometimes the simplest things, like, because sometimes people might think, like I always say, like, right when you're feeling your worst, then you're at a position in your life where you have to figure out how to heal and you're like, oh my gosh, how am I going to do this? And yet at the same time, sometimes it's these little, small, as you said with that case, small changes that add up to big changes in the long run. What do you find? Like, is there anything you suggest, like, if people are like, I don't even know where to begin. What do you find that people mention as they've, even their initial steps? They start with, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I think some of the simple stuff can be the most powerful. And you know, start looking at some of the, the anti inflammatory diets. I mean, there are a few out there that are kind of blueprints like, like whole 30. I've heard a lot of people like try the whole 30 and then after that, like for 30 days you, you're on an anti inflammatory diet. Then you start to bring stuff back and, and, and yeah, just that one thing will be super powerful. They'll say my joint pain is gone, you know, my brain fog is gone or you know, whatever. They'll start to see progress. And that's super powerful. That's something that, that you can do.

You know, other than that, you know, you know the basics, clean, you know, good filtered water, filtering your air. You know, all the things that we need to do to try to kind of reduce the burden on our body is.

You know, getting out in nature and movement and.

Reducing stress and. Yeah. Just kind of taking care of yourself in a way that we, we don't very well in, in our society. So sleep, sleep's a huge one.

Wow. Just. Yeah. Start hitting sleep. Oh my gosh. Well, you know, that's where I, I talk about some of these in my, in what I call the acronym care. You know, starting with clean eating and adequate sleep and recovery activities and exercise. You know, like those foundational things we can do every day. But I, I always say like, it's not something we learn in like elementary school really. I mean we don't probably learn a little bit of it. Like even if we think about in elementary school they, we, you know, to some degree they're teaching us about diet and sleep and getting outside and getting exercise, but we, we lose track of it because I think we're in this society of like, you know, getting very distracted with all these external messages and to do lists and we put ourselves last and we sort of lose sight of the importance of those foundational daily activities and how, how essential they are for us as humans. Right.

Yeah, yeah. And how much it matters. You know, really I think people underestimate how much those, those small things matter. Just the self care and particularly, you know, what you eat and drink, what goes into your body.

Absolutely. Yeah. It's been, it's been a fascinating journey and I look forward to just seeing where it goes and.

Well, that's the thing is, you know that you, you reversed your autoimmunity and. You mean. Because sometimes I think people at first they might be like, oh my gosh, is this going to be forever? But once you feel better, you're like, I wouldn't want to go back. Right. Like, what would you like, are you like, oh, I just, I'm just gonna keep doing what I need to do, to stay feeling good or how would you say it?

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. You know, I will come across family or friends who are like, you know, oh, well, you know, can't you kind of like bridge off from this anti inflammatory diet now? You know, and I'm like, you know what? I, I'm like doing really well. I, you know, I'm gonna stick with what works. You know, I'm like, I'm committed to, you know, this, this plan that works for me and I, yeah, I don't, I don't want to have setbacks. Of course, you know, you are going to have setbacks sometimes. I went to Mexico about six weeks ago and got parasites again. So, you know, I've been kind of taking care of that. I mean, so healing, healing is not, you know, linear. It's, I'm, you know, now I'm hitting menopause and you know, gotta kind address, address that. So things, things will come up and kind of up and down. But you know, yeah, I think I'm extra committed to the things that I know work because they've been so powerful. And I see that with, with most of the people I speak with as well. They're kind of not, they're not going back to their, their old lifestyle. Once they're healed, they're like, okay, I know how to take care of my body. I'm going to keep taking care of my body because it's powerful. It's, it is powerful to like sort of feel like you do have that control, as I said. Yeah.

And, and again, once you, once you get to feeling better, you're like, then you know what your body needs in order to maintain that, you know, and, and it's a lot easier to maintain it than it is to, you know, so you're like, okay, let me just. And even, like you said, even if you have a setback, then you know how to recover faster. So. Oh my gosh, that makes so much sense. And oh my gosh, thank you so much for coming to share with me today and share how humans heal and, and I'm really excited to be able to share your website and your podcast as a resource for anyone listening who's just needing a little bit of extra hope and inspiration of like, like, if you're saying to yourself, is it possible, is it really possible for me to heal, is it really worth all this effort that I'm putting in, then just go listen to some of Casey's stories and you know, I'm sure you're gonna walk away being like, okay, this person and this person and this person and this person did it. I can do it too. And it just can get you through another day. Because sometimes we need that. In her healing journey, right? We need a little bit of inspiration from others to say, like, cheering us on and remind us what we're going for, because otherwise I think we. We can have. There's some rough days in the process, right?

Yes. Yeah, exactly. And I try to show that as well, you know, that it's not like an overnight thing, you know, that, like, it. It took some phases and it took some working through, and it took some things that maybe didn't work, you know, so it's like what worked and what didn't work. So trying to really, you know, show. Show the whole picture. So. Yeah. But thank you for this opportunity to. To share. I love talking about it, so.

Oh, you're welcome. Thanks again. And thanks everyone for listening in. Please join me again for the next episode of how humans heal.

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