The Role Of Diet When Healing From Lyme & Mold

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Thank you.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Today. So Erika was once a time a patient of mine, and now she’s on the other side of health and wellness, and I’m just so proud of her. She is an example of somebody who, after being sick, is now out there with her own resources to help save the world. So thank you Erika, thank you for everything you do.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Absolutely.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

And for being here on the summit with us.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Thank you, very excited to be here and share some of my tips and tricks I learned along the way of getting my life back.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Wonderful. So can you briefly share your journey with us and how you got here?

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Absolutely. So my journey kind of officially started in 2012. I went on my third camping trip ever to go Yosemite. And after that trip, I was never the same. I had a weird flu that kind of would come and go and that started triggering on different autoimmune diseases. One day I was drying my hair and I had a bald patch on my hair that just showed up out of nowhere. And it was alopecia that had been triggered on, and that just kind of started the cascade of developing over 200 different symptoms I had. I had joint pain, neuropathy, I became allergic to over 60 foods, fatigue, brain fog. I used to forget how to get home. I would run stop signs and I had to stop driving because it just wasn’t safe and it just kept going on and on for about two years. And that’s when I was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease. And I was kind of relieved when I got the diagnosis. I was like, “Okay, well I have an answer to what’s wrong with me,” instead of doctor saying, “We don’t know,” or “We’ve tested you for everything,” or “Your labs are normal.” And I had no idea what the uphill battle was gonna be getting out of that and all the other things that were going to kind of unleash and learn about. 

So once I had one diagnosis and started working with you, which was amazing, we really kind of dove deep into some of the other things that were causing some of my health issues. We uncovered mold, we uncovered heavy metals, a lot of toxicity and things like that that we had to kind of work through. So it took about three years, I think, to get into remission about two and a half, three years. And we did tons of detox, everything natural. I never did antibiotics, which I’m really proud of. I know they work for some people, they don’t work for others. For me, it was just a personal choice that I didn’t want to go down that route. 

So I really wanted to focus on showing people how you can heal naturally, and I kind of documented my whole journey to give people hope along the way. And in late 2016, I finally did stem cell therapy using my own fat stem cells, and that was my magic trick that healed me. And I don’t know if I would have done so well if I hadn’t done those other things before. I think a lot of that work I did before really prepped my body, really helped me prepare to heal in the end of it. But yeah, I’ve been in remission since then. Remission is, I haven’t had any Lyme symptoms in about three and a half years now, almost four, I think, so that’s been amazing. It’s still a lot of work to stay here. I still take very good care of myself. I eat very clean. I live a very clean lifestyle. My health is always my priority in any decision I make and how it’s gonna affect me. But for the most part, I live a pretty, pretty good life. I work again full time. I’ve got my blog. I wrote my cookbook. 

My cookbook was really kind of a celebration that you can get better and heal from chronic illnesses and you can do great things in the world. I travel, well, pre-COVID I traveled a lot, and like I had one good year there. I’m hoping to get back into that soon. And I started creating gluten-free travel guides for different cities that I would go to to kind of give people hope that even though you have a restricted diet and have all these health things that you’re kind of navigating, you can still go out to eat and travel and enjoy yourself. And I try to give people as much hope as possible that they can have a normal, it’ll be a new normal, but you can have a pretty good and normal and satisfying life even after a debilitating chronic disease.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

I love the way you’ve just turned your life around Erika. It’s true. When I first met you in the capacity as a patient, it was hard. We worked on killing infections, detoxifying you, and really prepping you for the regenerative medicine, and the timing was perfect. A lot of people when they do stem cells or exosomes when they still have infections and a high environmental toxicant burden, it’s like retraining an already sick system. So it was perfect timing-

Erika Schlick Sinclair

It was.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

For you. I’ve seen too many people crash when it’s done at the wrong time.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Agree. Yeah. I’ve noticed that too. I think it really is about prepping yourself as much as possible, and then that’s kind of the last step to really kind of modulate your immune system and repair the damage and kind of finish things off for you.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Yeah, I’m just so happy for you to see you like this, the healthiest I’ve ever seen you, yeah. What foods have you found to be the most healing and most detrimental when healing-

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Absolutely.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

From mold.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Diet was such a huge piece, especially since in the beginning, one of my first diagnosis with celiac disease, so I really dove into foods and how they made me feel. And initially I went on a gluten-free diet, and really, it was just a standard American diet, but gluten-free version. So I would eat it. I would feel spacey all the time. I would feel, I was like, “I thought you were supposed to go gluten-free and feel amazing.” And granted, I had Lyme on top of it, but the diet just wasn’t doing anything for me. So my doctor recommended doing a autoimmune paleo diet and that was when I really was just shocked at the connection of like how our food affects us. Like I took out all the foods that cause inflammation, ate a pretty limited diet and was kind of adding one back in at a time. And I really learned, for me personally, I thrive with no grains. 

Grains are just, even today, I don’t really eat that many grains because I feel like they cause inflammation. I feel kind of Spacey. I feel bloated. Like I’ll eat ’em as a treat now because my body can recover quickly from it. But it’s not something I eat every day. They just cause a lot of inflammation in me. For me personally, eating a paleo diet with a lot of grass fed meats, a lot of healthy grass fed saturated butters and fats and things like that. I really thrive on healthy fats. Getting a lot of avocados in and ghee and things like that are really great for me. I can tolerate dairy, fortunately. I’ve taken it out many times. 

Some people that’s another one that can be very inflammatory. Sugar, no one should be eating a lot of sugar, and we all know and can agree that that’s not a great ingredient. And another one that I find that people aren’t as conscious of these days, I think there’s starting to be more awareness. That one that we really need to take into account is industrial seed oils. They cause so much inflammation in our bodies. They’re basically a by-product of industrial waste that they figured out how to bottle and turn into healthy oils that are not good for you. Particularly canola oil, soy oil, cotton seed oil. And then another thing that I really learned in my journey was looking at kind of toxins in food. 

So everyone was like, “Oh, drink your kale smoothie and like spinach,” but those are very high in oxalates that can cause a lot of issues and people and plants in general have a lot of anti-nutrients and it’s not anything that’s bad. It’s just the plant’s way of protecting itself to survive. But it can be very hard on our gut. It can be very hard on our digestive system. Some people are more sensitive to those things than others. So taking a look at that, and last but not least is mold. I mean, we’re here at the mycotoxins summit, and so mold in foods is a huge problem and it continues to be a trigger for me. It’s something that I have to be very conscious of foods that can be really moldy, especially are coffee. 

There’s a couple brands out there that are mold-free coffee, but I do notice a huge difference in that. So if you’ve ever had a cup of coffee and get kind of jittery or have a lot of energy and then crash and you’re just like, “Oh, that’s what coffee does to me, or caffeine,” it’s not necessarily true. It can actually be the mold and mycotoxins. And some countries have better standards for mycotoxins on their food or on their coffee beans. The US and Canada are not one of ’em. And they actually did a study in Brazil, 90% of coffee beans in Brazil had mycotoxins on them. So this is just a huge problem. We all wake up and drink that first thing in the day, right? Most of the world does.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

We do.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

You might be getting a cup of toxins every morning. So being really conscious of that. And I’ve had experiences with it. Europe is supposed to be a little bit better for mycotoxins on coffee beans. So the last few times I was in Europe, I was like, “Oh, I’m good enough, I’m healed. I’m gonna have just a coffee at a cafe,” and had two different occasions where I got so sick from drinking just a shot of espresso there. And I tasted it and it tasted really bitter, which is a sign that it’s not good. And I just felt so dizzy, so nauseous, like it felt like I was like on a boat, like seasick almost. And just like this wave of symptoms. And I took a bunch of charcoal, took a bunch of glutathione to try to get out of my body and it cleared, but it was just so interesting to me no matter how resilient you think you are, mold in foods can just really, really take you down. 

So that’s something I’m always very conscious of. And one that I think is just it’s the food industry just tries to trick us so much. But you know, you see citric acid in so many foods, especially packaged foods. It can be in even sparkling waters have it, sauces have it, condiments. And it used to be made from lemons in the early 1900s. And in 1917, they figured out how to manufacture it from black mold. And Pfizer of all, we all know Pfizer these days. Pfizer actually in 1919, started manufacturing it for use in foods. And it’s black mold, like every time you see citric acid now I don’t think anyone makes it from citrus anymore. It’s just so prevalent in our food system and it’s just something to be conscious of. So I avoid anything with that as well.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Thank you for sharing these things Erika. I think that mold is just so prevalent. Yes, in our foods, like you’re saying, and in water damaged buildings where 50 to 60% of them in America are actually water damaged, and people just don’t know this. I’m happy you’re shedding light on the food part right now. It’s really prevalent in our food, and people have sensitivities to maybe the mold and the mycotoxins, but not the food itself. Where as they think-

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Exactly. Exactly. I mean, that’s the thing with peanuts, right? Like we have this huge epidemic of peanut allergies, but it’s not the actual peanut, it’s the molds on them that people are reacting to. And so I think that is more prevalent in a lot more foods than people think. And when you’re sick with chronic illness and Lyme it’s so easy to blame everything on Lyme. Like, “Oh, the lime is causing this symptom,” or like, “The mold is causing the system,” but it could be what you’re eating on a daily basis that’s flaring that symptom. So learning to really notice how you feel when you eat foods and kind of having this conversation with your body, if you will, of like how you feel, how you react, I think is really important because you might relieve a lot of those symptoms that you’ve been treating Lyme with. You continue killing and treating Lyme, but it’s not even what’s causing that anymore.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Right, because when we have tick-borne illness and mycotoxin illness, they create certain patterns in the body, cellular patterns, biochemical patterns, neurological patterns. And once we’re able to remove the trigger, the triggers, take the tick-borne illness, the mold, the mycotoxins, the body still has those patterns. For you, it was a stem cells, for lots of people it is. Stem cells or exosomes that can retrain the body, but when the body isn’t retrained, it still thinks it needs to fight those patterns. So somebody with food sensitivities could eat a certain food once the Lyme and the mycotoxins have been healed, but the food will trigger that same response, that same biochemical pattern, though the body knows. And then people might think, “Oh, it’s my tick-borne illness coming back.” Maybe it is. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it’s something more simple, like what you’re eating. So definitely like Erika’s saying, have that talk with your body. And I remember you used to journal things. You probably still do.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Yes.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

You were just so great about journaling all your symptoms and your triggers.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

And foods.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

So actually tell people at this, ’cause there’s a lot of patients, Erika, that are watching today. Will you talk to them about how you logged everything, even though it’s not really directly related to mold or mycotoxins, that piece, but it is related to the people that are watching this they could learn a lot from you on this piece.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, journaling and doing a food diary is one of the best ways to kind of find your perfect diet, if you will. A lot of times you eat something, you don’t even think about what you ate and then all of a sudden you’re having symptoms the next day, or it can be even up to three days later. So writing down everything you eat can really help you kind of gauge what foods are triggering symptoms, and how you’re feeling. And like I said, some reactions can be delayed up to 72 hours. And I mean, I don’t know about a lot of people out there. I’m sure you’re all suffering from like memory and brain fog because those are some of my worst symptoms. So I was like, I couldn’t even remember what I was talking about. 

How am I gonna remember what I ate three days ago? So writing it down as a great way to do it. There’s actually a new app. I forget the name of it. You can find it pretty easily on the app store, but it’s like a visual food diary. So you literally just snap a picture of your meals and your snacks. And then that’s like a great way to document it without having to write things down too. And you can even enter in like symptoms or how you feel, so there’s some pretty great tools out there nowadays to simplify the process. But I really think doing an elimination diet is one of the gold standards to kind of figure out what your trigger foods are and what foods work with your body. And there’s definitely some tools out there now too to make it a little bit easier. There’s one test that will test your genetics and tell you kind of what your optimal foods are. 

There’s the Viome test that test your microbiome to see like what foods you need to kind of balance your gut. So there’s a lot of things out there, I think they can all be informative. I don’t think that one of those tests should just be what you follow, I think they can kind of inform it. But I really think doing the elimination diet, documenting your reactions and kind of taking inventory on what you’re eating and how you feel is really the best way. Your body’s gonna give you the most information more than any lab test is ever gonna give you. It’s a valuable tool for the rest of your life too. Like even now I’m like, my diet is like pretty clean, but I like indulge in things now that I’m in remission and pretty healthy. And sometimes I’ll eat things and I’m just like, “Man, I’m like still using that communication tool to see like, why do I feel off? What did I eat? What was it? Okay, I’m not gonna eat that again. You know?

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Yeah, what you’re saying is, so right on, that the gold standard is really the elimination diet and checking in with yourself.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Absolutely.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Yeah, because what the labs say might not also correlate with how you feel and then checking with yourself is the biggest tool.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

And I think it strengthens that muscle with like other things too, right? Listening to your body and pay attention, if you go into a building or you’re at work and you you’re like, I get a headache every time I come into work, you start to notice also your environments and how you feel. And this can be with like people, this can be with your physical environment or like cities or like anything. You start to kind of strengthen that muscle and get that feedback from your body that you become more aware of things and you can use it in different aspects of your life, not just what you’re eating.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Yeah, it’s really a tool I think for someone’s evolution in general. So I really see you, in so many ways after having been sick, be an even stronger person than before.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Definitely. And definitely more awareness of things. Like, I mean, I used to eat pasta every day for lunch. I was vegetarian for 10 years and I was so sick from like the foods, but I never associated what I was eating with what could have been causing some of my issues. And even before Lyme I was healthy, but I wasn’t really healthy when you think about it. 

Like I ate gluten every day and compensated for animal protein by eating more gluten. And then I would wonder why I used to drink five shots of espresso every morning just to get going. And then I was drinking Starbucks, which is moldy and I have the HLA gene. So like, I was just destroying myself without any knowledge or any awareness.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

And I think this is a really important point you bring up because you were eating like this and didn’t know that it wasn’t healthy. Lots of people do this. They just don’t know.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Exactly.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

And then they get bit by a tick and their system is primed-

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Exactly.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

For chronic Lyme.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Exactly, and I really think that’s what happened to me. In graduate school that’s I think when my journey actually really started. My apartment flooded and I used to get chronic sinus infections, they didn’t do a good job. They literally came in, lifted up the carpet, put fans and then put the carpet back. And after that I would get chronic sinus infections, but I was in grad school, I was up late like staying up late studying, like not taking the best care of myself. And then on top of it, I was a vegetarian, which was, like we just talked about, not good for me, eating a ton of gluten and drinking a ton of bad coffee. So it was just like this perfect storm. And when I moved out of there, I did feel better. I didn’t have the chronic sinus infections. I would get one maybe every six months instead of every six weeks. And so I was like, okay, I’m better, like I’m in a good place. But then I got the tick bite and it was, like you said, I was just the perfect storm for it all to come out and all to come to life and kind of show me everything that I had been doing wrong for the past decade.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Not wrong, you just didn’t know.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

I didn’t know, unaware.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Yeah, but your body was inflamed and you may be noticed it in small ways here and there. And there are a lot of people out there, maybe even watching this today, who just might not feel right, in some little way it’s minor, and then they get bit by a tick or they have a mold exposure. The body is primed and already inflamed for that to lead into something more complex.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Exactly. And kind of bring it all out too.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Right. Right. Right.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

At once.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

And we’re focusing a lot on diet today because you’ve written this book, which I’m so excited about, so I want to bring it back to diet. What steps and tools did you use to find your ideal diet?

Erika Schlick Sinclair

So like I mentioned, the elimination diet was a huge, huge piece of that. And as I’ve kind of gone on in my journey, just because you do the elimination diet, and like I said, I had over 60 food allergies in the beginning. I could eat like eight to 10 foods since I was on an AIP diet and allergic to like half the foods on that, and I thought I was just destined to eat that forever. But as I healed, every six months or so I would re experiment with some of those foods and see if I could tolerate them. Fortunately, when I did the stem cell therapy, it got rid of pretty much all my allergies, which has been a miracle. I had an EpiPen for chilies and I can eat chilies again.

It’s like, it’s so crazy just how resilient your body is and how much it can heal. So I always say, just because in that moment you can’t eat something doesn’t mean you’re not going to be able to, again. Try again in six months or try again in a year once your body has had a little bit more healing. So elimination diet I think is really good. I have used some of these other tools, like the GenoPalate is the genetic one that kind of looks like your genetics just as a baseline. And it’s kind of interesting because I did a lot of these tests, more kind of for fun for my blog or to be able to offer to some of my clients and talk to them about it if they want to use that as kind of their starting point. And I did it more to see if it’s accurate, kind of, right? So I’m like, I’m pretty, pretty confident in what foods work for my body and what don’t just from like my own journey. And so it’s interesting to do these tests and have them be pretty spot on. 

So all the ones I recommend, I feel like are the ones that I’m like, “Okay, like, they’re kind of saying the same thing that I already know, so that’s a good starting point.” So that one was really interesting. The Ixcela gut test, I thought was pretty interesting too. So it’s a blood spot test, but they look at kind of like different markers that will affect your gut. And they look at it from like immune system health and like fitness health, like strengthened muscles, like different things like that and then they make food recommendations and you work with someone there to kind of go through the diet recommendations. And then you retest every three months to see if that’s kind of affected your microbiome and your gut and you can tolerate more foods. So I think that’s a pretty, pretty good one just because it focuses on such a kind of gut health kind of component of it that I really like, and I think is really important. 

And then of course there’s like allergy testing, food allergy testing, which I think misses a lot, but it can be a good starting point for someone that’s like, “I have no idea how to do an elimination diet. I have no idea what foods work for me or not.” It can be a good starting point to be like, “All right, it says you might be sensitive to these foods, so when you eat these be hyper aware of how you feel and what feels good or like if you don’t good.” And start to document those symptoms because people think food allergies you’re gonna break out in hives and that’s your reaction, but it’s not that, it’s so much more. It can be joint pain, it can be brain fog, it can be bloating or digestive and gut issues. 

So looking at all those kinds of things, it can be like neurological reactions, like for gluten I get neuro reactions, you know? So a lot of things that you don’t even think about can be caused by the food. So I think those are good tests to have a starting point. And then really, if you feel overwhelmed with elimination diet, working with someone that is versed in that and can kind of help guide you and break it down and make it step-by-step and attainable to start diving into to how to do it.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Erika do you do that with patients or with clients?

Erika Schlick Sinclair

I do. Yes.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Right.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

I have a coaching plan or a program specifically to finding your perfect diet. And there is no one size fits all diet. Like sure, there’s foods I agree that most people shouldn’t be eating that cause inflammation, but I really work with people to figure out what their individual ideal diet is and what foods they thrive on and what foods they should not be eating. At least now, they might be able to eat them later, but you know we’ve got to have a starting point. And as you heal kind of experimenting with those foods again.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

And on that topic of how you work with clients, tell us more about what you do in your coaching practice.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Yeah, absolutely. So I usually work with clients over a six month period and we meet every two weeks and I find, especially with people healing from chronic illness, that’s a good window because we can kind of start and set some goals and we have some accountability and check-ins as we go through. So usually at the beginning, we’ll work together to figure out what your top three goals are, and those might change and evolve as you’re kind of going through it. So if it’s someone that wants to work on diet, I’ll walk ’em through kind of what steps are gonna be good for them to find their diet. 

If it’s someone that has a mystery illness and doesn’t know what kind of doctor to go to and needs help getting a diagnosis and meeting the right doctors, I’ve helped people with that too, and made recommendations to practitioners that I think can really help them and do the right testing to get them on the right treatment plan, so that’s another part of it. And then people that are kind of in their journey healing, and they’re like, “Oh, I’m 60% better, but like, don’t know what to do next. What else should I look for? What other things should I talk to my doctor about to try to uncover?” And at that point it might be working on diet stuff, or again, referring them to the right practitioner to work with in their area to kind of investigate other things that I learned on my journey that I thought were valuable and kind of finding those missing pieces.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Right, and you have some of the best organizational skills I’ve seen in my whole life, hands down. Ever. From teaching, to doctor. to colleagues, you have that.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Yes. I’m a very OCD, Virgo.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

That will be very very helpful for your clients. ‘Cause a lot of the times people are too sick to stay organized, it’s really, really difficult. Or I have patients and they’re an entire family. There’s five of them and they’re all really sick and everything is on the mom to organize everyone.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Organized.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

And she’s sick also. And so that’s where someone, well, not someone like you, you could really come in.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Absolutely. Yeah. And when I work with my clients, I always tell them like, “Don’t worry about what we’re talking about. I’m taking really thorough notes and I’m gonna send it to you with some actionable items of kind of like what you need to do or next steps,” and keep it very simple and very organized for them because, like you say, a lot of people are struggling with that.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Yeah, and you’ve been there. You’ve been where they have been. I’ve seen you. I know how sick you were. You can understand them, and I think that that’s really important because a lot of times people who are as sick as my patients and as sick as you have been, they feel isolated. People don’t understand them. Friends don’t understand them or family members don’t understand them. And so to have somebody who is also a coach for them and helping them stay organized, who understands, who’ve been there-

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Absolutely.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

You can give them hope and a certain level of compassion that maybe someone who hasn’t been in their shoes might not be able to reach.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Exactly. Yup, absolutely. Yeah, I try to support you in whatever way you need. So that means, helping you get organized, that’s part of it too because that’s a huge step. You have to organize your treatments and like how to make sure you’re taking your supplements and appointments and getting the most out of the appointments that you have. I mean, the doctor’s appointments are expensive, and you have maybe 45 minutes every two months with your doctor, so making sure you’re organized and have your questions written down, covering everything that’s on your mind, making sure you kind of have a to do list almost, if you will.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Right. So Erika, now that you are in remission, what does that look like?

Erika Schlick Sinclair

It’s a pretty good life, I will say. I still do a lot to keep my immune system healthy. I go through phases taking supplements. Like sometimes I’ll be like, “Oh, it’s the winter time. I’m gonna make sure I take some extra supplements.” Other times I don’t take them for like a month or two. I do do IVs pretty regularly still. I’ll get a 10 pass maybe every two to three months. Ozone has just been such an amazing thing for me. I just love Ozone, and I really feel like that helps me. I like to do a round of thymus, maybe every six months or so. Thymus is another thing that just has been so good for my immune system. And then like in between there I’ll do IVs if I need ’em. I’ll do some Vitamin C or a little Ozone or some glutathione just to not because I feel sick, but so that I don’t feel sick. 

And a lot of times I do it when I’m actually feeling really good and then it gives me kind of a super boost. And then I work full-time, I have my design agency and then I do my blog on top of it, so I am very, high-performing all day. I can work all day and I rest when I’m tired. I work out every day, which is amazing to like work out again and exercise. And I do SoulCycle, which is not an easy exercise almost every day. And that’s just such a huge difference from when I had Lyme and like taking a shower would exhaust me for three days. So definitely like my energy is really, really good. I do struggle with gluten, as a celiac, and I get glutened and it really takes me down. And I probably spend unfortunately about 30% of my life glutened. So that really is bad. I would go out on a limb and say that 30% of food labeled gluten-free actually has gluten. I react to it and I test it with my sensor and it has gluten, so I know I’m not crazy. 

I get very distinct symptoms. I get like occipital neuralgia headache here that lasts seven days. I get brain fog, fatigue, like irritable anxiety, insomnia, it’s all neuro stuff, and so that’s pretty frustrating. I’m really hoping somebody comes out with a magic pill, even though I’m not into magic pills, but for this one, I really want a magic pill. There’s some stuff in the works. There’s one study that they’re currently doing right now that I guess is like an enzyme that you take when you eat that will kind of just encapsulate the gluten and get it out of you. So something like that I think would be really amazing if some of our amazing scientists and doctors in the world can discover that, please. 

So yeah, that’s probably my biggest nemesis is gluten and trying to live a normal life. And I find that I get glutened more at home right now recently. And this is actually started since COVID, which has been really frustrating. The FDA changed the labeling laws at the beginning of COVID to kind of not cause any issues with supply chain and being able to get food to people, which was a concern early on. And so companies have been able to source ingredients from other vendors to prevent supply chain issues, but they don’t have to update their labels. So something might be sourced in a facility with wheat again, or not have the same gluten-free standards. And I’m finding that brands I have used for 10 years, I’ve been gluten-free pretty much nine and a half, 10 years now, all of a sudden have a gluten out of nowhere.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

I didn’t know that, Erika. Thank you for sharing that.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Yeah, so that has just been a killer for me these past few, this past year, it’s like a mustard brand I’ve used forever, a Mayo brand I’ve used forever, even an ice cream brand that I’ve used for 10 years. All of a sudden I was like, why do I feel glutened? And I was in denial. I didn’t even want to test them because I’m just like, why would I waste the tester on this? And they had gluten, so things like that make it really, really difficult when you can’t trust food labels. And I don’t eat much in a package to begin with. I mean, I try to stick very whole foods and mostly meats and wild fish and vegetables, but you need mustard sometimes, you need Mayo sometimes, and you need garlic powder sometimes, and these things can just have gluten in them. So that’s probably my biggest frustration in remission is just navigating the gluten more so than any issues still from Lyme or mold. It’s the gluten is my biggest trigger and biggest obstacle.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Thank you for sharing that with us, yeah. Tell us about your sensor.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Yes, I wish I had it here to show you. So it’s a little bit of a sad story. The company is actually out of business now. They got purchased by another brand, but it was the Nima sensor and they kind of just left the community hanging, which was really frustrating. And I kind of saw it coming. Their social media wasn’t very active for a little bit. I was like, I don’t know, something’s wrong here. So I ordered a ton of capsules early on to kind of get me through. Now there’s a new company called Medline that is taking over and seems like they’re starting to produce the capsules again, so there might be a little bit of hope. But the sensor has just changed my life and there’s a couple of other ones coming on the market so I’m hoping something comes out soon because there’s a whole community of people that rely on this to eat safely. 

But it’s a little triangle device, it’s called the Nima and you get a capsule and you put a tiny, maybe about a pea size amount of food in the capsule and put it in there. And it takes about three minutes and it either gives you a smiley face if it’s safe, or it has like gluten found symbol, which is the dreaded symbol. And so, I mean, it’s amazing because now I was able to get some more capsules since they started producing some of them again. So I’m trying to make it a habit now of just testing everything when I open a new package, whether it’s a brand I know and trust that’s been safe for a decade, or if it’s a new brand. Just to try to limit some of that gluten exposure on my body. There is a new brand coming out called Allergy Amulet. They released one, I think for soy or peanut already. 

I don’t recall which one they’ve really started, but they have a gluten one in the works, so that seems promising. And I just saw another one, I forget the name of it. There’s a third one that might be coming to the market. So if you’re very sensitive to gluten, I highly recommend looking into one of these devices. It can really save you from additional accidental exposures. They can be a little expensive, which I hope that they figure out a way to make it more available and accessible to people because it shouldn’t be something that you can just have if you can afford. I think a lot of people need this in their life. So figuring out a way to make it more accessible I think is gonna be the key with some of these things, but if you do have access to it I highly recommend looking into one of these devices. It definitely has saved me from probably being glutened 60% of my life, honestly. For me it’s money well spent. Being healthy is expensive, unfortunately, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do and do it.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Thank you.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Being sick is more expensive. I have learned that the hard way. So I’m like, I definitely do prioritize spending money on my health, whether that’s IVs or gluten sensors or healthier food, because it’s a lot less expensive than treatments and being sick.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

It’s true. Thank you for sharing that, yeah. Tell us about your book.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Yes. I have it here.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

It’s so exciting.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

So this is my cookbook “Wandering Palate”, and it’s 28 days of paleo meals, and it was kind of funny how it started. Basically, I meal plan every week. So I figured out what I’m gonna buy at the grocery store, order and what I’m gonna make so I don’t have to think about it. And I was like, “You know what? I’m so sick of meal planning every week. I’m just gonna make a four-week meal plan of my favorite foods, and if I eat the same food once a month, I’m not gonna get sick of it, and then everything is figured out.” So as I started diving in, I was like, well, why don’t I turn this into a book and let other people have this too so they don’t have to worry about meal planning. So it works as a traditional cookbook. You can go through and just pick out the recipes that you want, or it also has a four week meal plan, I’ll show you here, at the end with all your meals, figured it out for four weeks.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

That’s great. Here are your organizational skills.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Yes.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Coming in again. That’s fantastic.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

I have your grocery list. So everything you need to order and have on hand for the entire week to make all the recipes. And I took into account making it easy. A lot of people work during the day, so they’re gonna want simple lunches, or you can even make something the night before that you can kind of reuse some of the ingredients the next day in your meal to try to make it as efficient and easy for people to eat healthy. And yeah, and then the recipes are all paleo, they’re all gluten-free, there’s even AIP modifications on about 90% of them for anyone doing AIP diet as well. There’s some that have rice because rice is kind of a gray area in paleo, but you can also use cauliflower rice. So there’s options for people depending where they’re at in their health journey. So yeah, I eat these recipes all the time, they’re like my favorite recipes, like I said. So I just tried to make it as simple and easy for people to join in that as well.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

This is something people need. I strongly recommend this book if you suffering from complex chronic illness because usually I recommend people do an autoimmune paleo diet, and then after sometime, maybe six months, maybe even three months, they can switch over to more paleo style. It is anti-inflammatory, and when people first start this diet they don’t know where to get the groceries necessarily. They don’t know how to put the ingredients together because they’re used to just making a sandwich or making some mac and cheese or going to get some pizza.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Exactly.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

This is the standard American diet that we’re trying to shift people out of. And people need a lot of help, it’s just the way it is. And then once they find their rhythm, then they can do it and it’s fine and it’s actually easy. And then you love it, but it takes some time-

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Absolutely.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

For it to become easy and for people to find their rhythm. So your book, I think, is a jumpstart into that. So instead of taking a couple months, it could probably take a week to become a rhythm.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Yeah, absolutely. And the whole book kind of has like a structure too. So I wrote it in a way to kind of empower you to start to fill in your own recipes. I don’t remember exactly the full structure, but like when it’s like a big fish, the next day might be like a type of like healthy bowl. So it’s like, you’re like, “Okay, well now I have this kind of structure in place. Now I just can fill it in with like other recipes that I find or make my own recipes,” once you kind of get used to it. So it’s kind of like training wheels in a way to get you to eat in a more kind of structured and clean way. And I always find like, if you have the ingredients and you have the meal plan figured out, you’re gonna eat it. 

Now I’ve become like a little bit more laxed and I’m like, when I don’t have something planned, it’s like, “Well, what do you want for dinner? Oh, let’s just order something,” because you don’t have anything planned or defrosted, but like the nights that I pulled a fish out and defrosted it, or like a piece of meat, I’m like, “Oh, well we have this for dinner, we’re gonna eat this for dinner,” you know? So having that structure, having the ingredients and having like what you’re gonna eat figured it out definitely makes it a lot easier to stay on track.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

I bet you’ve to change your fiance’s life as well.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

It’s interesting, when I went gluten-free he went gluten-free with me to be supportive. And in that he found out that he’s actually sensitive to gluten too, extremely sensitive. And yeah, I mean, even he kind of did the elimination diet with me because we basically ate the same thing. So he discovered a lot of things that he was sensitive to. He was reacting to some yeast, like brewer’s yeast. It was in like kombucha, and like nutritional yeast, he would get kind of like a breakout around his nose and some like patchiness on his eye lid and things like that and learned that clearing those things out of his body and his diet those things went away. So yeah, he definitely has learned about his body along the way too. He hasn’t had a choice.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Exactly, so this way of eating is helpful for people who are suffering with complex chronic illness, but it’s also helpful for people who are not,

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Exactly.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Spouses and the family members. And you’re making it enjoyable for people ’cause a lot of the times, Erika, people are like, “I can’t eat like this, this is boring.”

Erika Schlick Sinclair

It’s not. It’s definitely not, yeah.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

You make it delicious.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

We’re going on a trip with some friends, like a little reunion trip after not seeing people for awhile, and I was like, should we do family style meals? I was like, I can put stuff together. And everyone was like, “Yes, please, your food is great.” You figure everything out for us. And I’m like, ‘Does everyone mind being gluten-free for the week?” They’re like, “No, it’s fine.”

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

You’ll all walk away healthier.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

You start to educate people and they see that they can eat like whole foods. When your food quality is high, when you use grass fed meats or wild fish and organic produce, the food itself tastes so good you don’t need to slather it and heavy sauces and condiments and things like that. You can use some fresh herbs, which are extremely good for your immune system. Some high quality fats, some citrus, and you have a delicious meal and it’s simple. It doesn’t take long to make, and it’s good for you.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

I can’t wait to have dinner with you.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Hurry up and come visit.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

I will. Yeah. One last question, Erika. I understand you got vaccinated.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

I did.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

And that I might be controversial for people when they have complex chronic illness. So now you’re on the other side of that, just patient who’s in remission to patient who’s in remission do you have any insight for people?

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Absolutely, I mean, this is something you definitely want to talk to your doctor about. It all depends on your current health and what you’re experiencing. For me personally, the idea of having another long hauler symptom, or I still struggle with like chronic inflammation from Lyme and mold and like SIRS and things like that. I didn’t want to have another condition set off another cytokine storm and risk coming out of remission, risk having chronic inflammation and having all those things come back. So it was a difficult decision for me, but in talking with my doctors and kind of weighing the options, I felt like it was the right decision. 

I’m in a very good place with my health. I’m healthy. I did some things around it to detox and eat clean and did some extra Vitamin C and Zinc and things like that to keep my immune system really healthy. And the first one, I had no issues. I had a very slightly sore arm and I actually felt really good afterwards. And I don’t know if it was part relief and stress relief that it went well or that I was like, there’s like some light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve been very strict during COVID. I haven’t seen anyone. I’ve been very, very careful I wore mask everywhere. I just did not want to take the risk. 

So COVID roulette was very wearing on me. And so getting the second one, I got the second one about three weeks ago now. And I did have, the first day I was fine. The next day I had a sore arm when I woke up, and around noon that day I got the chills and the achiness and I was like, “Oh God, what have I done? Like, am I gonna be okay?” And I made a deal with myself. I was like, “Everyone’s reacting this way, not just you, it’s just your immune system activating. It’s a good thing ’cause your immune system is doing what it’s supposed to do.” And I was like, “I’m not gonna panic. I’m just gonna watch Netflix and snuggle with my puppies all day.” And I was like, “If I’m not better in three or five days, then I could panic. I will give myself permission to panic then.” But I was like, “Don’t do it now, just like go with it,” and the next day I was fine.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Good for you.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

It went away, and then I’ve been feeling great since. And honestly I feel like the stress relief from getting it and what I can do now has just been life-changing too. So like I said, I was very strict during COVID and that was really wearing on me. My adrenals are a little bit taxed because I’m an extrovert. I haven’t seen a lot of my friends. We’re stuck here at home. It’s draining. I was like ready to live my life again after Lyme and here I am kind of trapped again, you know? And so it’s been so nice. I like went to the butcher’s shop and picked out my own meat again, I bought a combo, which was like amazing. And I started going to like upgrade labs to do some of like the biohacking things I was doing again. I got my hair done, my nails done. I was just like, “Oh my God, this is so nice.” So that alone has just been such a huge stress relief on my body and immune system and the peace of mind. It’s just not something that I wanted to deal with. So the chances of me having a bad reaction to the vaccine, I felt like were much smaller than me getting COVID. So I just felt like the right decision for me. And I’m very, very happy with my decision so far. So no unicorn horns yet.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Well, that’s so good. Thanks you for sharing that with us. Erika, do you have a gift that you want to share with our participants?

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Yes. Absolutely. So I want to make the book more accessible to everyone and any of the merchandise on my site, I have some cute aprons and totes, so you can use code Summit for 10% off anything on the site to make that more accessible. And if you let me know, if I see it come in with the Summit discount code, I will send you a signed copy.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Oh, that’s so nice. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that. And thank you for this interview, Erika.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Absolutely.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

So much fun to interview and just so happy to see you.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

You too.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Like this! Healthy, happy and balanced. It’s just wonderful.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Now we can go play and have fun. Instead of putting an IV in me.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Exactly. Well, thank you, Erika.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Thank you so much.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

I’ll talk to you soon.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

All right sounds good.

Nafysa Parpia, N.D.

Bye.

Erika Schlick Sinclair

Bye.