01 Aug We Can Heal Ourselves! Shawna’s Story
We can heal ourselves! My patient Shawna is proof that the body can restore health.
With insights from advanced testing and guided by epigenetics, Shawna and I agreed on a more targeted and natural approach to addressing her multiple sclerosis. The post below is her story, originally shared by Shawna to her candida support group on Facebook. It’s a testament to her strength and the power of precision medicine combined with the right diet and lifestyle changes.
“Your body has not forgotten how to heal—you just need to create the right environment for a long enough period of time to remove inflammation and infection.” – Ann Boroch, CNC
Here is Shawna’s story:
“The day after my 41st birthday in November of 2014, I woke up with shingles. I was miserable. I was on Tysabri so of course my immune system was compromised and I was at risk for whatever virus came along. I looked at the statistics of Tysabri and I thought “what am I doing?” There had to be a better way…. Not only that, but I was what my husband described as “vacant”…. I couldn’t think straight. I attribute that in part to a large daily dose of Gabapentin (Neurontin 1800mg) and 30 mg per day of Baclofen.
My 16 years with MS had been a cycle of trying one drug after another and….feeling like I’m only getting worse. In the previous 5 years I had gone from walking for hours per day to not being able to walk for 20 minutes. Something had to change.
I was already pretty good at the Paleo diet but I would cheat and eat junk here and there. I had a long history of candida and plenty of antibiotics as a child, when I had intense ear infections. I still remember crying in pain at age 5. Doctors still see the scar tissue when they look in my ears now. I also had a staph infection when a neighbor boy bit me on the arm, also at age 5. I bet that took a ton of antibiotics to fix.
My parents were busy business owners and I grew up on microwave meals and lots of processed food. My mom cooked good meals too but there was plenty of junk. Then as a teen I was eating fast food daily…. I was plagued with yeast infections and other obvious symptoms of candida.
I was married and 25 with a 3-year old when I was diagnosed [with MS] (in 2000) and within 2 years I wasn’t rebounding…. Something would go numb and stay that way forever (hands, feet, skin). Then, a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. I was just getting weaker and weaker all the time. I had and still do have a lot of pain and migraines.
March 2015 I took my last dose of Tysabri and in April, I started LDN [Low Dose Naltrexone]. I considered this my first step to healing.
Then I started seeing a Functional Medicine MD, [Dr. Mary Caire], who is like an angel. She helped me stop Baclofen and Gabapentin and helped me with hormone balancing, supplements and Nystatin. I started Biotin in October 2015 (it seems to help me with fatigue) and [went on the Ann Boroch Protocol] on November 1st 2015. After almost 16 years I finally started to feel in control, no longer a victim of MS but actually fighting it. I always thought I was fighting it, but until then I really wasn’t.
A week ago I walked half of our large mall which I haven’t done in years. I am doing water aerobics every day (5 days per week). I ride my bike when it’s not too hot. My brain is clear now and that is one of my biggest improvements. I don’t stare off into space looking “vacant” and scaring my family anymore. I can engage in life again.
I haven’t used my scooter in a very long time or even my cane. I still have pain and inflammation but it may be the candida moving about and getting angry…. I still have a long way to go. Luckily I love to cook so eating the Ann Boroch way has not been difficult for me. Really it’s what I was looking for and needed.
I needed the support of this group to stick with it and y’all (as we say in Texas) have no idea how much you’ve helped me. I never feel alone in this journey because of all of you.
Stress is something that has always brought on hard times for me and currently my husband and I are in the middle of major life changes. I feel I am now able to handle it so much better than I could of a year ago. We’re selling our business in Texas, buying another business in Florida and moving of course. But I feel calm and able to cope and organize my thoughts.
There are still days where I get a migraine and every part of my body hurts and I just want to cry and lay in bed. It happened just a couple days ago. But this is part of the journey. I am confident there will be less and less of these days.
I had a massage the other day and when I got into the car I moved my feet around and for a few minutes they didn’t feel numb at all. The numbness came back but for a time I got to feel normal again and eventually I will feel that way all the time.
Working with [Dr. Mary Caire] along with the Ann Boroch Protocol has been a life saver for me…. It’s healing me one day at a time.
Ann Boroch is a Certified Nutritional Consultant and healed herself of multiple sclerosis. Her protocol can be found in her book aptly titled “Healing Multiple Sclerosis.”
Share your comments and your story of healing. How are you helping your body be well?
Mary Caire MD empowers the world to create a culture of optimized health guided by DNA and epigenetics.