Today Dr. Maggie Yu interviews Robin, a healthcare provider who has had a journey with autoimmune disease. Robin is a nurse practitioner working in newborn intensive care with premature and sick babies. Her autoimmune journey started fifteen years ago, and it knocked her flat on her back. Through the years, Robin has slowly recovered her functions and noticed she needed a lot of mindset and spiritual work to complete her journey.

In her late

thirties, Robin experienced all the signs and symptoms of menopause. She had noidea this was possible at such a young age. With all these drastic changes,Robin wanted help to get back to her old self. After three years of thesesymptoms, Robin looked toward eastern medicine and eventually had her ownfunctional medicine doctor.

What is

normal anyway? What we are taught is normal has nothing to do with what isoptimal for human function. The way we are training doctors, the idea ofoptimal functions is wholly lost. Normal is not optimal! “Normal” is when fiftypercent of people have the same symptoms as seen in their results from gettinglab work done. However, who is getting lab work done? People that havesymptoms, suffering, and existing health problems. Therefore, it cannot be saidthat these labs are now society’s standard.

Robin

learned from Dr. Yu that her body is potentially one trigger away from aninflammatory response. There are tools she can use to navigate and keep herthyroid and B12 levels at an optimum range for someone with an autoimmunehistory. Dr. Yu does not just teach about what the medical facts are or how touse medical data; she educates people on how to discern if a provider is one tohire or fire. Next, Dr. Yu teaches patients how to work with their providers onassisting someone with autoimmune symptoms. The providers do not have to livewith autoimmune symptoms; it is essential to advocate for your needs and knowexactly what to say to your provider. In general, providers do not have thetime or the know-how to deal with all the problems someone may have withautoimmune disease.

For years, Robin has not done well with an authoritarian approach to patient care. She needs to have a dialogue; her first session starts with an interview, and if the provider cannot have a conversation then she knows it is time to move on. After going through Dr. Yu’s programs, Robin learned she has value. There is value in health and wellness, and as a provider, Robin is worthy of setting limits with her schedule and making sure that she gets meals. This mindset shift is massive because Robin was used to putting herself on the back burner.

Another

aspect that Dr. Yu teaches is the power of manifestation. Many times, peoplerepeat their current suffering and repeat the journey that got them to wherethey are today. By repeating the mindset that caused them suffering, they areactually manifesting the suffering. Giving ourselves permission to value ouroutcomes and get better in order to be an example for others is essential tofree the pain and suffering of our current journey.