The Autoimmune Protocol Explained: What Most People Miss About Healing

Introduction to Autoimmunity and AIP 0:00

Food sensitivity testing in the hands of a great practitioner is an amazing tool, but how I see it used poorly is when people think that because they're in a clear, like gluten or dairy or eggs don't come up on their food sensitivity test, they think they are good, right? Want to eliminate those foods. So what I like to do is have them do the elimination diet first, then a lot of that inflammation comes down and what's left is dealt with by a skilled provider. If you're overwhelmed with chronic health symptoms and still don't have answers, you are not alone.

I'm Dr. Javan and on redefining wellness with Dr Javin, we'll be exploring root causes like Lyme disease, mold and parasites and I'll guide you with simple and practical steps towards real healing. Hello and welcome back to another podcast episode from Redefining Wellness Center. I am your host, Dr. Jay Van Moore, and I'm excited to talk about autoimmunity today.I have Mickey Trescott here. She has a book out, The Autoimmune Protocol, a clinic named Auto Immune Wellness. So obviously, you know what we're talking about today and this is a passion point for me because one of my very first ever cases of Just like massive success with labs was someone who came in with Hashimoto's thyroiditis.

was 7,000 antibody count. I mean, it was massive. It was like off the chart. And I wasn't even at the time really paying that much attention. When we worked with her on Lyme parasites and mold, within three months it went from 7000 to under 200. By seeing this crazy change, her doctor even called me like, what did you do? So that really got me into functional medicine. So I really love your topic. Can you just tell us a little bit about yourself? Yeah, so first of all, hi, thank you so much for having me on the podcast.

First and foremost, I am an autoimmune patient myself. So I started to have symptoms of auto-immune disease about 15 years ago, when I was 26 years old. I had numbness in my fingertips, and I got tired. Up until that point I never really had a lot of health problems, but then I noticed hair shedding, having a harder time recovering from my workouts, then not being able to work out at all. And it escalated to the point where I lost my job, and my full-time job became going from doctor to doctor, trying to figure out what was wrong with me.

I didn't really have a lot of experience in the healthcare system, so I really didn' know what to ask for. Now I know that what I was suffering from was thyroid disease, I very very cold, very tired. And I kept going in and they took one look at me. They looked at my age. they were like, you can't have a thyroid problem. You are too young. you are to thin. And you know, perhaps it's mental health. Perhaps it is depression. perhaps its an eating disorder. So I got thrown at kind of all of these really unhelpful suggestions and really nobody did the actual work to test and figure out what was wrong with me.

So it escalated to the point where I had neurological symptoms, I have white matter lesions on MRI, so they were thinking perhaps it's multiple sclerosis. I've had pleurisy, which is inflammation of the lining of lungs, very, painful. A lot of connective tissue problems. Rheumatology was kind of like, we're curious, but again, you need to have these symptoms for a lot longer before you can get categorized. And I ended up with a diagnosis of celiac and Hashimoto's, but then I was told, you know, your thyroid levels are normal.

We have nothing for you. Just go gluten-free. All your problems should resolve. Of course, they didn't. And so that's kind of what led me on the path to learning about nutrition and autoimmune disease. So I had a prior job where I chefs in like a private setting. I actually learned a lot about cooking and a lots about medicinal cooking. So there was a chef that was like an Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine expert and people who had these certifications in different healing modalities. Some of the chefs were traditional so they were just straight up like really amazing like traditional chefs.

And that's really what got me curious about then trying to figure out how to use food in my recovery because I really believe that deep down food was a part of it. Even though my healthcare providers were not interested other than going gluten-free, they really didn't give me any validation that that could be a Part of my healing journey. And I discovered the autoimmune protocol, which at the time, 15 years ago was just like a sentence. on a blog somewhere. But I was so desperate that I decided to try it and I started blogging and writing myself.

And that's kind of how the AIP community really formed around a bunch of mostly women like me who were using this protocol in a situation where we had no other options and then telling each other about it, becoming friends, and kind developing it into something that it is today. Wow, yeah, I mean, it's the same story for so many of us in this industry where we realized that what we were being told didn't quite make sense, right? It just didn t feel innately inside of good and we fought and now we want to give back to people because, similar to me,

Mickey Trescottu2019s Autoimmune Journey 5:18

did not have autoimmune but I had Lyme and mold and parasites. my body's falling apart at 25, I'm like, this doesn't feel right. It doesn' make sense. I feel like I should be healthy at twenty five. And, you know, one of the things that I was reading when I looking into your information, when was studying up on you so that could make sure to make this a good podcast was that you have your own clinical practice. One thing you talk about is misconceptions about autoimmunity. and it got me really intrigued because that's something I like to talk to is people say, well, I have IBS and I'm like, well, what is Ibs?

Your stomach hurts and no one knows why? Is that what that means? So what are some of these misconceptions or these things that you notice in your practice that we just start right off the top here? What do we want to knock out there? Yeah, so autoimmune disease, people get confused because it is this very broad category of conditions and there are over 100 conditions that have now been categorized as auto immune. And really that process is just that the body, the immune system is attacking itself.

And I'm sure your listeners are very familiar with kind of the basic immunology of how that works. But in practice, what that means is that the immune system can attack any organ or system in the body. And that's why we have these different manifestations of autoimmune disease. So like for me, I have celiac disease that in my intestine. I has Hashimoto's, that is semi thyroid. There are auto immune conditions that affect the hair like alopecia, the brain, multiple sclerosis, The joints, rheumatoid arthritis.

Like this is the list, right? So people with autoimmune conditions, they often they are in this community or this categorization of whatever their disease or their illnesses without recognizing that the pattern of autoimmunity is actually this common thread with everything, right? And this is why something like dietary or lifestyle intervention can actually work across multiple auto immune conditions because it's influencing the immune system. You know, we don't exactly know perfectly how that's happening, but the clues are that it's probably affecting the microbiome and that intestinal lining.

And through modifying that, people feel a lot better. It's because our immune systems are in the gut. When ourimmune systemsare no longer being triggered, they, you know are off doing what they're supposed to be doing, which is to actually identify when we have problematic things in our system, like parasites or mold or viruses and not actually attacking our own tissue, then people feel so much better. One of the big misconceptions is thinking specifically about AIP. Well, maybe that has only been studied for IBD or Hashimoto's or rheumatoid arthritis, so it might not work for my X, Y, or Z.

I've seen all across the board, all types of people be helped by eating this way, even though it hasn't been study yet. So you said eating this way. And although I've used AIP in my clinic, I found it to be extremely effective. I can't say it's always super easy, but that's why you wrote a book and you're a chef. So, you can hopefully help me to make that easier because I am no chef I'm like, can I eat the same thing every day? Which I also know is bad. That's its own whole problem. But you mentioned to me that there are studies, there, I think you said nine studies that have been shown for different types of autoimmune conditions that show that AIP is actually something that is effective and significantly relevant when studied, right?

Yeah, so it started with IBD. So the autoimmune protocol took form about 15 years ago. And the anecdotal evidence, people like me who were starting blogs and talking about it, then becoming practitioners, and other practitioners started using it in their practice. You know, started this grassroots movement where lots of people were adopting AIP, telling their stories. One patient at the Scripps Center of Gastroenterology in San Diego, this is a research institution, told their provider that they had done AIB, they have ulcerative colitis.

This provider got very excited because they are head of the research department, Dr. Aghori Konigetti. And ultimately, she got in touch with me because she wanted to do a study on AIP for patients with IBD. Now, the results of that study, they did 17 people through a transition and elimination, which we can talk about what that entails in a little bit. But they found a 73% rate of clinical remission in a population of people who had been sick for an average of 19 years. They had failed all of the conventional treatments, which are biologics, steroids, you name it, they were all in active flare.

And this was an incredible result and out of that came a few more studies in IBD, some of them even an intestinal RNA study that is really interesting. And then later groups got interested in Hashimoto's and rheumatoid arthritis. So yeah, the research is really exciting. It's really cool that, you know, that one patient who was really just talking to their doctor about like, hey, can I try this thing? I think they needed a bowel resection, which for anybody who's familiar with IBD, they're cutting out the diseased part of your intestine.

That is a very invasive surgery. So, it was amazing that that worked so well for them and that their provider was actually in a position to be like, I'm curious about this, let's study it. And that kind of set off really a wave of research that is still continuing today.

Common Misconceptions About Autoimmune Disease 11:00

So in these studies, were there specific outcomes that you can quote off to me? Because I love numbers. Do you have any of them memorized like the reduction in X was 40% over the study? Cause I just love hearing numbers, like I'm a numbers guy. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So for the IBD study, the endpoint, they used both patients that had Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, which these are both digestive autoimmune conditions. They're a little bit different from each other, but they're often studied together.

The patients had either one, and the end point for this study was clinical remission, For one is defined as the Harvey Bradshaw index and the other one as a partial Mayo score. And basically all this means is that that is a benchmark in clinical research for when a patient with Crohn's or ulcerative colitis has reached clinical remission. So that just means, you know, I think they need a colonoscopy. They need to have like a calprotectin, there's a few different markers in that. But if all the markers are correct, then you can say that patient went from being in a flare to clinical remission.

So when we hear about 73%, that's who reached that benchmark. And the important thing to know is that they got there in six weeks. This was a six-week transition, eight- week elimination. They got there basically the week they were fully compliant on the elimination phase, and then all of those patients stayed in clinical remission. Nobody was like added into that group. So that was actually kind of interesting that that sustainable for the two months that they stayed on diet. Hopefully that math is interesting, but for IBD it's great because you know, having that clinical research background using those measures instead of saying, we saw improvement.

You know people said that they felt better. They actually did a second study that was in quality of life. And what they used was a short form 36, which is a validated questionnaire in a lot of different domains. I don't have all those results memorized. But it turns out when people are not running to the bathroom 20 times a day, having bloody diarrhea, they are actually feeling a lot of improvement in their quality of life, right? So you can imagine those results were really, really good. The third study from that group, the intestinal RNA study was just so cool because they actually had tissue samples for four patients that had ulcerative colitis from before and after.

And this was actually the very first and only study that has ever been done in ulderative Colitis in this way. So they actually sequenced all of the RNA, which this is genetic expression. This is how our tissue regenerates, rebuilds, or if we're in an inflammatory state, you're going to see pro-inflammatory markers So, they basically compared everything from before the diet into after. Very experimental, really hard to take any like clinical takeaways from that other than, you know, the pathways of inflammation were down-regulated.

The pathways for healing tissue healing were up- regulated. All of the things that we would maybe assume when somebody reaches like a clinical remission state in a dietary intervention study happened, but it's really cool to maybe see some of Yeah, I love the studies. I loved the information because it's sometimes in medicine, right? Like, what's going to work for this person doesn't necessarily work that person. And when we're sitting back in the more natural medicine realm and we are looking at diets, there's just not enough data in so many cases to give us a true outcome.

Just in the last couple of weeks, I personally have been deep diving all this AI stuff, trying to figure out what it can and can't do. And I took. I don't even know, 36, 40 hours of my life and just talked to an AI and put in so much information and then like had it go research the information, bring me data and bring results. And I just made 17 different diet guides for my clients, 17 of them, which means that I have 17 diets that we tend to use within my clinic, AIP being one of them because it's incredible.

I honestly learned that way back in the day from Datis Karazian when I was in Apex Energetic courses and he was telling us to do that when we were working with Hashimoto's clients and that takes me to my next question. i believe that you absolutely have to eat well enough to get well but It's also a burden if somebody loves food and as a chef, you can imagine where my question is going. If you love food, and you could only use certain foods, what are you doing with people? So like you put them on AIP, which is just for everybody listening, it's fairly restrictive, right?

Like you're removing quite a bit of what I would consider even what healthy individuals would have in their diet, nightshade vegetables and so on. What is the expectation of this? Are you seeing people that, let's say for these ulcerative colitis people, like, do they have to stay on it forever? Is this something that you're stuck to for life? is it helping to resolve things? What's, what's an expectation for somebody listening going, wow, 73% remission in six weeks is incredible. That's amazing.

Now what? Yeah, perfect place to start because AIP is not a diet. It is something that you do long-term, and it's right in the name, protocol. A protocol is a tool that we work through. And then when you're done with it, you've identified your specific food allergies, sensitivities, intolerances, the different things that make you feel well.

AIP Research and Clinical Outcomes 17:00

AIP is done in three phases, transition, elimination, reintroduction. A lot of people get to elimination. They feel great. And they're like, I'm not doing anything else. That's what people like myself, when I found this 15 years ago, found the elimination list. I did it. You know, we didn't really have good guidance for reintroduction. We didn' know that re-introductions was an important part about integrating this into our life long-term, right? So now, the Ottoman Protocol, not only does it have those three phases, reintroduction, which is one, after you are eating your personal diet long term, which for two Hashimoto's patients, we're not going to be alike, right?

Two celiacs, two people with rheumatoid arthritis, We're all going have different food triggers. We are all gonna have food that actually helps support our health and make us feel well. But that's really where it expands into something that you can live with. For the rest of your life, like me, 15 years later, I'm not eating this elimination diet. I am eating the way that I have identified best supports my health with celiac Hashimoto's and psoriatic arthritis, if that makes sense. So while you're going through an AIP diet, because this is something that we'll say I've always worked on with clients is, If I put you onto something that is an AIP diet, and I like it even better, AIIP protocol, I'd like that you change the name.

I would like you to modify the verbiage because that makes me trust you more, honestly. It helps, right? Some people are like, this is my diet forever. Carnivore can be incredible for Hashimoto's. They're not Hashimotos. Actually, it can trigger worsening for thyroid instances. for like eczema and psoriasis. I've seen some really incredible things. And like, that's not a lifestyle. That's something you can do forever. As much as I would like it to be for me personally, I like meat a lot. But it's just not something that I will stand behind for a lifetime for somebody.

Because one of my biggest concerns is microbiome diversity. everything I learned going into practice, which sometimes gets flipped upside down when you're in practice and you see what really happens with people. Microbiome diversity is one of the most important things we can have. We see it being degraded by glyphosates and antibiotics and all of these other things. And for those listening, microbiome, diversity means a number of different individual species of bacteria in your digestive tract. That's what I'm talking about.

What are you seeing happening with elimination diets or carnivore or even vegan for that matter? Like when we shift too far in one direction, is that a problem we have to be concerned with? Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's why the autoimmune protocol is a safe space for people who have a lot of inflammation and have chronic health issue because it is very diverse and nutrient-dense diet in the elimination phase. So this is something that is pretty unique to AIP is that microbiome healing component is actually built into the protocol.

So in addition to all the eliminated foods, we are including foods like bone broth, which is extremely healing to the gut lining. We are, including lots of fresh, whole foods. Like fruits and vegetables, especially really brightly colored, you know, for all of the polyphenols and all the different fibers. You know we are eating animal foods which include lots of different nutrients that are really healing. We're not eating all processed foods and the things that really microbiome disruptors. and cultured foods, and these foods are really good at supporting the microbiome.

So yeah, that is a central part of AIP. That being said, in that reintroduction phase, when people get to the point of introducing grains that they tolerate, so like rice is something that's now included in the modified protocol, we haven't really talked about that now, but there's a new protocol which There's core and modified. Modified includes rice. That can be a really nice addition for people. Pseudograins, which are actually in the seed category. We don't see a lot of people reacting to these.

Your buckwheats and your quinoa have a lots of interesting fiber qualities to them. legumes. Legumes have a lot of fiber. They also have some protein. And so when people reintroduce foods, we're really encouraging them to introduce what we consider healthy microbiome-supporting foods and expanding their diet over time, not just living, like you said, I have the exact same concerns about carnivore or keto. Like long-term, it's just not supportive of a healthy micro biome. That being said AIP is actually very similar to a vegan diet, and I can say this as somebody who is a Vegan myself, I've actually provoked the Vegan community quite a few times because I actually say that AIP is plant-based diet and people don't like it when I say it, but what I mean is I want you eating a plant full plate, like I want you eating, you know, roasted sweet potatoes and squash and broccoli and maybe some fermented cabbage.

And the piece of protein, that's like medicinal, right? That's not the whole thing. You're eating all of those beautiful fruits and vegetables and the protein is just the high-quality, nutrient-dense source of proteins, but it is not main thing that is going on. Yeah. And here's the thing. I mentioned I would enjoy carnivore because I like the meat. So I'm polar opposite, but that said, I know that's not where we should go. and, and I tend to just look at labs and i'm like, Hey, look, um, your amino acids, you're branching amino acid, You're, uh, leucine, isoleucin, valine.

Um, they're tanked. We need more protein. Well, i am a vegan. Okay. That's fine. we need to be a Designed vegan is what I'll say to them designing the diet to fit your needs. So we got to find the protein in there. We'll find it somewhere I'm sure you have that in your protocol right where we identify the amount of protein that somebody would need and make sure that they're not missing foods because that's also another roadblock that I tend to run into with people and when we put them on restrictive diets is they don't

How AIP Works Long Term 23:30

eat enough. So do you have recommendations when people are getting into these very structured diets, which I agree with you completely. Not only does the research agree it with, you I can give you personal testament to, I have put a lot of people into an AIP protocol and they get better. But the roadblocks are they, don t eat, enough so do have, recommendations for that. Yeah. So for vegetarians, you're going to want to choose the modified protocol. And that's because the Modified Protocol includes rice and legumes.

I mean, just straight away, that is not your best source of protein. Any nutritionist will tell you that the food combining is important and it's challenging as a vegetarian. But if you are somebody who eats vegetarian or doesn't eat a lot of meat, the modified protocol is the safe one for you. Core AIP does not have enough protein sources because it eliminates, if you're also eliminating meat and fish and then you are also eliminate nuts and seeds and grains and legumes, you cannot get enough proteins just from vegetables, right?

So, make sure that you're being safe choosing the right protocol. About the under eating, I think some people who don't know how to prep or cook, like this is a really common barrier to elimination diet when you are doing elimination. You're cooking mostly home cooked. foods. So it takes the convenience meals off the table. And I will say today, there are some incredible companies that have like frozen to your door AIP meals, which are amazing. There are grocery store options that you can find. You know, I like to do a picnic sometimes with like a rotisserie chicken, you know a bag of salad, when I'm traveling.

so there's like hacks like that. But for most people, You're going to want to be cooking at home which is challenging, especially if you have chronic illness. You have low capacity for cooking. So really making sure that you're planning ahead of time for any of your clients who are feeling like, okay, I'm going to do this AIP. I understand what it is, but then I go to eat the food and there is no food. And so that is a planning and a prep problem. And I kind of love to live in the implementation space because a lot of this is only hard until you develop a routine where you're always prepping like all of your breakfast for the week.

One of the things that I love doing is making a breakfast soup, which I know people are like, weird, why would I not, Why would i eat a Breakfast soup? You know, that's weird. There are many cultures that actually do eat soup for breakfast. And I will also say that having that dose of broth, vegetables, maybe some starchy carbs like a sweet potato or some squash in there, and then a good dose a protein, high quality protein like some chicken with a little scoop of fermented veggies. I mean, that is, you can't do any better when it comes to starting your day with breakfast soup.

So I love it. I also love all the things you just said, and I want you to give me a few of these direct AIP ship-to-your-door companies. Do you have a couple that you know? Yeah, so Urban AIp is the one that I have partnered with. The woman who runs it, Marie Noel, is an autoimmune patient herself. She runs her kitchen in LA. It's all 100% gluten-free, cross-contamination- free. packaged in paper. There is absolutely no plastic in any part of her process, which is really hard when you're shipping things across the country.

So she really gets the highest quality ingredients. The recipes, a lot of them we have collaborated. A lot the recipes are mine that she's just making in big batches and shipping to everyone. If you guys check out Urban AIP, tell Marie Noel I sent you. Hmm. Can she make me some other food? Because she sounds like the perfect person to make some food because although I don't want to eat AI now because I'm beyond that need after I recovered, but packaging it not in plastic is incredible. That's a whole different podcast we can go on of plastic and packaging and all of that stuff.

So we've gone down the AIP route quite a bit, which is the book, right, the protocol. But I know for a fact that that's not where it ends for you. I, I. Know that you're doing other things. You mentioned Lyme and parasites, mold and all these other things. Where are you implementing your strategy for those things? Is it a get them on this diet, get their body calmed down, then maybe run labs and then check for these things, how does that work for you? Yeah, so a couple thoughts. So the first thing is that food sensitivity testing is really not able to tell us all the ways in which a person can react to food.

And this is something that I know all my functional medicine friends are like, yeah, technically, but they're very helpful. I totally agree. The issue that comes up is if somebody has a food-sensitivity test and it says that they are not reacting to eggs, that person does not want to do an elimination diet, right? They're like, I'm good. My test said that I don't not reacting to eggs. But we have research showing that you can use every single test and there's actually one group, Fitzgerald Ravens at all.

They did a six different types of the standard food allergy tests. And then they actually had people do a trial and error of elimination diet. That even went into the intestine with a confocal laser, which is like a camera. And they took pictures of what happened to the mucosa when people ate these triggers, and then when they got symptoms. And what they found was that none of the tests were able to accurately predict when somebody had a physical reaction. As a side note, they also discovered that people could have reactions up to six days after they ate that food that they saw on the camera was disrupting the mucus.

So all of that to say, Food sensitivity testing in the hands of a great practitioner is an amazing tool, but how I see it used poorly is when people think

Protein, Meal Prep, and AIP Food Options 29:30

that because they're in a clear like gluten or dairy or eggs don't come up on their food sensitivity test, they think they are good, right? They don' want to eliminate those foods. So what I like to do is have them do the elimination diet first, then a lot of that inflammation comes down and what's left is dealt with by a skilled provider, right? Because when you have somebody coming to you and they are like in that completely inflamed state, where do you start? You know? And I mean, a lot of smart providers are saying, okay, here's what you do with your diet.

Here's, what do your lifestyle. We're going to do some more testing. Give them 30, 60 days with the diet and lifestyle. There's gonna be stuff left over, but that stuff leftover is gonna point you towards mold, lime. It's going to give you somewhere to go, right? So personally, that's my approach with elimination. I think it really clarifies the next step. And I'm friends with a lot of different functional providers and collaborate with them on clients. And a lot of them are concerned that their clients don't have the money to just start with all the testing, especially if that testing isn't going to be productive.

So starting with some diet stuff, you know, managing what needs to managed and then jump in later can be a smart approach for some people. And that being said, the elimination diet, I don t recommend doing it any longer than three months. Three months is kind of that point where, if you are still having trouble, If you're still have unresolved issues, that's where you need to enter troubleshooting. So that where if your not already working with a functional medicine provider, go in, get tested, have somebody review your history.

There's usually a root cause there. It could be a mold issue, it could something like, you know, reactivated virus, it could be a complex gut issue. These are things that need treatment, or at least they need modification. You know, just doing a diet isn't going to help you get through that. So making sure that people know at that 90-day mark, if they're not feeling meaningfully a lot of improvement, that's a time to really get a provider on board and start engaging and troubleshooting. You were talking about food allergy panels and they're super popular out there and I'm glad that you spoke on that because that's a topic that I like to get into also which is food allergies first of all are a misidentification of what that food is and our body's causing a reaction to it because of some other burden or trigger right so your body is too stressed out that who got misidentified as being a problem I mean For the most of us, we're not talking about gluten.

We're talking not about dairy. I'm talking when you're randomly allergic to foods you ate your whole life. Celery. Yeah. There's a lot of random foods. And I've seen the more random list of foods, they're like, I don't even eat that. These tests are high quality. They're expensive. So I pulled away from food allergy testing a long time ago. It's not to say there's no place for it. It wasn't my starting point preference. That's when I went to AIP. So I loved that. And then you said, you know, get some of the inflammation down and financially, if you can't run all the labs, I mean, they are, unfortunately with inflation, They've gone up and up, and if your looking at I've got mold and autoimmune and I got Lyme and all these other things, it can range into the thousands of dollars and realistically what people care about is they just want to be well.

They just wanna have results where they're not feeling so badly, their body's operating for them and they can get their freedom back. And AIP can definitely help bring you out of a flare for those people and with the tools you're giving, that's amazing. So, you know, as we're getting closer to the end of the podcast here, I really want to just make sure that I don't miss this question because you've been through this, You've got the diagnoses. You said you are not eating AIP now. What helps sustain you?

How do you stay well enough to live your life and have freedom? And do ever have to go back to AIIP for you. Yeah, so I love this question because it gives me the opportunity to talk about the long term, which I know anybody listening who's chronically sick, they're like, I just want to get better, right? They just wanna get that point where they get but then what happens when you get right. So I like to call it basically whenever I have engine trouble, i'm noticing some symptoms coming up. It's like you're driving your car, you like the car is making a noise.

You know, the smart people are going to like bring it into the mechanic or, you know talk to the person in their life who takes care of the cars, which I'm very lucky to have that person of my life. You need to do that with your own body. you need a check in with yourself and kind of be like, okay, we've got a little engine trouble. What's going on? I like to call it battening down the hatches. So I am like preparing for what I think is going on, which is like, I'm feeling vulnerable.

Food Sensitivity Testing and Root Cause Work 34:30

I might not feel a full-blown autoimmune flare, but the signs are coming, right? And so what i'm going to do is I''m not going go to the elimination diet, The foods that I call gray area foods, these are foods I have some sort of threshold tolerance with. And this is something that we didn't really talk about, but in reintroductions, you're going to have yes foods. You're gonna have no foods and you have gray areas foods gray. Area foods are the ones that if you combine them with other gray-area foods maybe if eat them when you are super stressed maybe you know you eat at a certain time of the month or maybe your going through perimenopause like me and your hormones are kind of doing their thing and that's like another whole thing but there are all these reasons why situationally, foods can kind of be okay or kind not.

I'm going to take out all those gray area foods when I am battening down the hatches. And I will amp up all of the healing foods. So these are the bone broth, the really nice cooked, slow cooked collagen rich meats for me. Organ meats, liver is like a battery for I will amp up my fermented food. So I'm putting like a scoop of sauerkraut or fermented carrots on like everything I eat. I am using my coconut yogurt for like, a different culture there. Um, I mean, lots of vegetables and I just not experimenting.

Not kind of playing with the margins. Just staying very safe. Then when I feel great, I have energy, not having any symptoms. I'm unfurling the sales. You know, I am on vacation in Europe. you know I know i have a little threshold tolerance with dairy. i'm going to try a hard cheese. This is, i am relaxed, right? I m not going do anything crazy like drink alcohol at the same time because I've already done that experiment. That's not good for me. So for each person they get to kind of decide how that works for them and how to live long term.

not on this crazy restricted diet, but kind of through the seasons of life. And then, you know, like myself, I got sick in my 20s. My hormones are very stable. I'm now 41.I'm going through perimenopause. i've got some hormonal shifts happening. That's kindof the next phase for me that I am just feeling in body. How things affect me and things are changing. But I have the tools to understand what's supporting my health going forward and what maybe I need to ditch You know, short-term, long- term, I don't know.

But it's all an effort to just maintain that wellness. Got it. So that was a great answer to me because it gives a reality. It gives real, live potential for what could actually be happening for somebody. Because what we really run into is a lot of people are just like, ''I feel like I want to be better. I wanna be all the way there. And I go back to my normal daily life and I'm like well, But the reality is, if you've done AIP and it helped, then you pulled the burden off your body, whatever that burden was, inflammatory in your gut, and we see an improvement.

So we need to then step back and say, okay, what's the realistic expectations at the end? And if get rid of the bugs, the parasites, mold, et cetera, you get more bandwidth, more freedom. And then if more stressed out, less freedom, And stress is anything that puts a burden on your body. That conversation with that person that didn't go well. Work too much. The mold in your house. It's all burdens to me. All weights that are weighing you down. And the more you take off, the better you're going to feel.

I think that just gave a really realistic expectation for people. To be able to go, if I do this, it's a commitment. It's this length of time, don't do it more than three months, but also I can do again if I need to come back.

Maintaining Wellness and Where to Find Resources 38:30

I'll have to. But if feel like my body's weakening and come and if want to go out and have that, um, wine, which somebody just told me that like, I was at a conference and they were talking about biodynamic wineries. Organic, no chemicals, super clean. I was like, that sounds cool. But if you're going to have that wine with all the histamine and it's going drive your immune system and they can cause triggers. And if, you know, these things about yourself, then you can leverage your decision-making process, which is what we want to give people the ability to take control of their life, understand their physiology and improve it.

So. I really like this. I love your research on AIP.I didn't know those studies were out there, I just knew it worked. So I loved knowing that there's some data to back it up. Now I'm going to have to go and get those Studies and put them into my my guide just because I think that helps people go, okay, yeah, like, this this really can work. It does work is the mind game with people when they're going through these diets like I know it. It's hard to give up your cheeseburgers, even though you should, in a lot of cases, it's just hard.

And just knowing there's going to be an outcome at the end is important. So I really just want to thank you. Where can people get your book? Because at this point, they're like, wait a minute, I want try this diet. Yeah, so the book is available wherever books are sold. It's a nice big hardcover, full color pictures just for anybody that's had like, you know, a, nice cookbook where you can see what you're making. That's my intention. I photographed everything myself. Um, it's also available on Kindle for worldwide.

So if anybody is not, um, close to US or Canada, You can also get your hands on it that way. Amazing. Well, anything else you want to tell people before we sign off today? Yeah. If you're interested in AIP, I also have a website, thautamineprotocol.com. I have lots of resources, food lists, reintroduction charts. And I don't gatekeep anything about AIPs. My mission is just to make it easier for the next person who wants to do AIPS. So I've got over 500 free recipes and everything that you guys can plug into on that site if that's what you are looking for.

Amazing. Can you say that website one more time for me? Yeah, it's theautomianprotocol.com. Perfect. Well, thank you so much for your information. Thank you for you mission and bringing AIP to the world. And for everyone else, we'll see you on the next episode of the redefining wellness podcast. Until then, bye. Thank you for tuning in to redefining wellness with Dr. Javin. If this episode spoke to you, please follow and share this podcast with someone who is ready to take control of their chronic health symptoms.

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