Chronic Conversations

Presenter: Welcome to Chronic Conversations with Katherine Williams. Over the next hour, you'll hear from experts in the field on the topic of chronic illness, how to fight it, how to live with it, and the breakthroughs happening every day. Now, here is Katherine.

Katherine Williams: Hi, and welcome to Chronic Conversations. I'm your host, Katherine Williams, and I'm so incredibly excited and grateful to be here. With this being our flagship episode, we're going to be doing something just a little bit different for this show. We're going to start off by sharing my personal story with chronic illness, just through an open discussion with my dear friend, Nikki Candido, a fellow chronic illness warrior, who I love dearly.

Before we dive in, I want to share some background on my friendship with Nikki. In 2009, I opened a fitness studio, and Nikki was one of my clients. We became fast friends, we had a lot in common, and I trained her for about five years. Then as luck would have it, in 2023, we reconnected and just picked up right where we left off. We had, unfortunately, and fortunately, something in common again, but that is that we both were diagnosed with chronic disease. Nikki, thank you so much for being here with me today.

Nikki Candido: You are so welcome. I am honored to be here. Katherine, I know that the goal of this podcast is to help others, but I think it's important for you to share your experience with chronic illness. Do you remember the first time that you started feeling off?

Katherine: Oh, goodness. Probably about 2016, I noticed something was off, and my main symptom, I feel like, was constant bloating. It's not just like a little gas, bloating like belly distension, like I have a beach ball under my shirt, super uncomfortable, really taking down my confidence, clothes didn't fit, and being and feeling like that all the time was frustrating, I guess, to say the least. What happened following that was a journey that took years to figure out what was going on, and eventually, I found out I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's.

Nikki: Wow. Can you define what Hashimoto's is for our audience?

Katherine: Yes, I can. Hashimoto's, it might sound like a foreign language to some people, and others might know exactly what it is, but it's an autoimmune condition where the immune system mistakenly attacks the thyroid gland. This attack leads to inflammation in the thyroid that can impair its ability to produce the hormones that it normally produces, and those hormones are necessary for regulating so many functions in the body.

It is a thyroid problem. It does revolve around a lot around the thyroid, but it's also a whole-body problem as well. As for symptoms, for me, the list is pretty long, but for me, it included fatigue, weight gain, constipation, brain fog, and hair loss, and those are pretty common ones. I could talk about that all day, but now I'll go back to my journey.

On this journey, there was a lot. I went to the emergency room with stomach pain, and I was originally misdiagnosed with appendicitis because I did a CT scan, and my appendix was inflamed. The surgeon came down and said, "I think we're going to take out your appendix." I was like, "Okay, all right. Well, if that's what I have, then let's do it." We ended up not going that route.

I was treated for diverticulitis, which I think that is what I actually had at the time, which is an infection in your colon, essentially. They put me on really strong antibiotics, and they were terrible, but then they eventually killed the infection. From there, I was so fatigued and sick, I couldn't get out of bed. I was so exhausted. I couldn't play with kids. I couldn't do normal everyday activities, unless something just absolutely had to be done.

I got tired of feeling that way, so I started researching my symptoms. Then I stumbled on something called, at the time, integrative medicine as an approach for help. It's something I'd never heard about, read about, so I was super excited to find something that might help me. For those of you that don't know, integrative medicine, it's a holistic approach to health, combines conventional medicine with alternative, more natural therapies. It's the best of both worlds.

What I love about it is that it emphasizes taking into account the whole person, not just the symptoms. That way you can get to the root cause of what's going on, what's causing those symptoms, not just putting a Band-Aid on those symptoms. Once I found the right integrative practice, one of the things I found out was that I had SIBO. SIBO is small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. It's a mouthful.

Nikki: That sounds bad.

Katherine: [chuckles] I could go into all that, what it is, but I'm not going to right now. Some of you listening might know, might actually have it, and be experiencing that. At the time, I thought that was the answer. I was like, "All right, I've got an answer, I've got SIBO, how are we going to fix it?" What I didn't realize at the time was that SIBO is not a root cause. It's just a symptom of something else. It was nice to have an answer to one of the things in some way, but also discouraging in another because that wasn't the answer.

After a month of functional testing and also a full thyroid panel, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's. It's important to note that if you feel like something's up with your thyroid, you can go to your doctor, you can ask for a full thyroid panel. Make sure they're not just testing your TSH. TSH is Thyroid Stimulating Hormone. You want to ask for a full thyroid panel, which is TSH, T4, T3, pre-T3, TPO antibodies, and reverse T3. I know that's all a total mouthful. We can add that to the show notes or somewhere. I also have two posts that list out what a full thyroid panel is on Instagram. You can see it there as well.

In addition to-- all right, I got on thyroid medication. Getting the dose right can be frustrating, but once you do, it's helpful. Another thing to note is that just because you're on thyroid medication doesn't mean everything's fixed. I thought it was.

Nikki: Oh, yes.

Katherine: Yes. I was like, "Oh, I've got it. It's great." No, it's not.

Nikki: Great. I can go back and live my normal life. No. [chuckles]

Katherine: I also had to make some major lifestyle changes in that one of those lifestyle changes was eliminating gluten, dairy, soy, and whey, which is super overwhelming. I was really overwhelmed at the thought of eliminating all of those foods. I didn't know anybody that eliminated that. Yes, that was tough, but in the end, it didn't end up being the right thing for me and it helped tremendously.

Nikki: That's a very long and complicated journey. How long after your diagnosis and treatment did you actually start feeling better?

Katherine: That's a good question. All right. My journey wasn't linear. It's still not linear. By incorporating a lot of lifestyle changes over time, I began to heal. I had more energy and think clearly. I was losing weight my body had been holding onto for years. A lot of that actually was inflammation.

Nikki: Why do you think after years your body finally let go of that?

Katherine: Because it finally felt safe.

Nikki: Oh, well, that's deep. Back into your lifestyle changes, can you tell us about that a little bit?

Katherine: Sure. During the lifestyle changes, especially the food change, I just felt really isolated and alone and unheard and honestly a little depressed. Some of y'all listening, you might feel the same way about some things. After feeling like that for a while, I finally started reaching out to people and sharing my symptoms. I'm like, "Hey, there are other people out there that feel similarly to me." It was really great to find that base of people in a community, and after spending more time with them, eventually that led to the start of Coffee & Community, which is a community group I started for women with chronic illness. Love those girls so much.

From there, I knew I wanted to help people on a deeper level, which led me to becoming an integrative health practitioner, my certification now, and then that certification was the foundation I needed to start ThriveWell, which is my integrative health practice.

Nikki: Katherine, I know that ThriveWell has been "official" for a few months now, but my guess is that your vision has lived on a lot longer than that. What's at the heart of your mission and vision for ThriveWell?

Katherine: Thanks for that question. At ThriveWell, Hashimoto's is near and dear to my heart, but so is chronic illness in general because we've both lived it now. Hashimoto's is, where I guess, feel for women the most because that's what I experienced. At ThriveWell, I help women with Hashimoto's reverse their symptoms through lifestyle changes so that they can get back to life, whether it's playing with kids, spending time with friends and family, just getting back to the things that they love, and they haven't felt good enough to do. I know that can go for a lot of chronic illnesses, not just Hashimoto's.

Also, I like to say to thrive and not just survive. For real, how often are we going through our days just surviving? It's possible to feel better and wake up ready to take on your day and live a life filled with joy and energy, but enough about me. I want to, I want you to tell listeners about your journey as well. When did you first notice things were off?

Nikki: Yes. In 2004, I experienced what I didn't know then was my first flare. It was a really stressful point in my life. I had some loss. I was in a really unhealthy relationship and I found myself having to go to the bathroom a lot. My ride from home to work was about 25 minutes and I had to remember where every bathroom was because I had to stop maybe five times on the way to work.

Eventually, I started seeing some blood in my stool and I was like, "Ah, it's probably just the hemorrhoid because I'm going to the bathroom so much." I went to the doctor and they diagnosed me with irritable bowel syndrome. They gave me a little pack of pills and they said, "Well, whenever your tummy hurts, just take this and it'll go away." I was like, "Great, perfect. My life is normal."

After probably a month or two, everything went back to normal and I was good. Seven years went by without anything. Then in 2011, I experienced my second flare. It was again an extremely stressful period in my life and it lasted a couple of months and I just chopped it up to, "Oh, it's my IBS flaring." I stopped drinking coffee. I stopped eating things that would upset my stomach. Again, there was the blood, not too much, but probably more than there should have been and something that should have made me go to the doctor. I was like, "I'm fine. It's just IBS. It'll go away."

Fast forward 10 years in 2021, my body broke. If I'm honest with myself, I almost died and I was in the hospital, and I ended up getting diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. I have ulcerative pancolitis, which means it affects your entire colon. When I was really sick, it was actually backing up into my small intestine, which is really bad because if it keeps going, that can turn into Crohn's disease.

I have been on an 18-month journey just to get back to an even playing field. Today I have energy and my hair grew back because I lost hair too. I lost like half the hair in my head, which as a woman and a mom, and you're out there all the time, to lose half your hair is horrible. I did get extensions to help though. [laughter] My hair grew back, but it's amazing how long it took for me to find the right doctors, find the right medication, find the right lifestyle because when I was first put on medication, I was feeling better.

Just like you, I was like, "Oh, I have the medicine. I can go do what I want." I was going to concerts and enjoying Prosecco and beer and doing all this stuff. What I realized is that I couldn't do those things anymore. I couldn't live life like I did before. It affected me as a mom. It affected my career. I am a very driven person. I'm a VP. I had to take four months off of work. Really, during that four month period, I spent a lot of time alone, felt very isolated like you.

I just started viewing life really differently. It made me realize that I have a beautiful life. I have beautiful children and friends, and it was more important to me to spend time with them than to focus on my career, which for people that know me is a shocking statement. I'm actually thankful for that kind of awakening, so to speak. Even though my body broke and I'm still on a journey to get back to normal, in a way, I think this needed to happen because I was going down a path that was just not sustainable.

Katherine: Totally. Thank you for sharing. That's a lot. We're going to take a quick break, but when we come back, we will share some of the things that have helped us on our journey, and hopefully, we'll help you, but also we will talk about what you want to avoid. We'll be back in a second.

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Presenter: Do you struggle with persistent symptoms like extreme fatigue, bloating, brain fog, and hair loss? For years, Katherine Williams couldn't get answers about her health, leaving her frustrated and feeling isolated. Now with a Hashimoto's diagnosis and health coaching practice under her wing, Katherine is helping others find relief and healing as a certified integrative health practitioner through her company ThriveWell. Fill out the form on the Contact Me page at www.thrivewellwithk.com to book a free health coaching consultation today. Let's stop surviving and start thriving.

Female Speaker: Your life, your health, your network. You're listening to VoiceAmerica Health and Wellness.

Presenter: Welcome back to chronic conversations with Katherine Williams. We hope today's episode has helped you on your journey with chronic illness. Now back to the show.

Katherine: Hey, y'all, welcome back. Now Nikki and I are going to get into what we feel like has helped us throughout our journeys.

Nikki: Yes. This will be a little bit more positive than the earlier segment.

Katherine: Well, yes.

Nikki: [chuckles] Okay. Katherine, you first. What do you think has helped you on your journey back to healing?

Katherine: So many things, but I guess the overarching thing would be that I found the right combination of conventional and alternative therapies, helped me the most, especially since that's what helped me reverse my Hashimoto's, which is amazing, and experiencing this kind of breakthrough of that combination was the basis for me creating the ThriveWell method, which is what I use with clients to target the removal of toxins, their replenishment of deficiencies, and basically restoration of the body's natural homeostasis, how it's supposed to be functioning.

That's it in a nutshell or the ThriveWell method, I guess. This method, again, the ThriveWell method, it's inspired by the widely recognized DESTRESS Protocol™ and that's a protocol that was developed by board-certified naturopath, Dr. Stephen Cabral, who some of you have probably heard of. He also created the integrative health practitioners for certification course and a bunch of other courses, that certification that I have.

Nikki: Very cool. First, you reversed your Hashimoto's? That's literally-- I want to throw a parade for you because that's amazing. Congratulations.

Katherine: Thanks.

Nikki: I wanted you to go just a little bit deeper on the ThriveWell method for our listeners.

Katherine: Sure. Yes, I almost don't let it say I reversed my Hashimoto's because I had so much help and support and guidance throughout that. It's amazing. My numbers are great. I'm thankful, really thankful for that. I also want to help others do the same.

Your other question was about the ThriveWell method. Apparently, that's a tongue twister to me. I'll go through it quickly. I'm about to list out different things, different areas we focus on within the ThriveWell method. Just note before I list these, not every person needs to focus on every single one of these. Don't get overwhelmed when you hear it. most people just need to focus on two or three of them, but I'm going to tell them all.

All right. The first one is thyroid-friendly, whole-body nutrition, foods that are good and nutritious for your body. Hormone balance as women, we know that's something that's super important, reducing inflammation, immune support. Another big one is, I like to call it stress resilience, not stress management. Build up your tank, I guess, for the stressful situations with stress resilience.

We also talk about sleep and exercise. Another one is whole body detoxification, get out those toxins. Emotional well-being. A lot of us keep our emotions in, which is not good for our bodies. That can come out in different ways if we keep them in such as sometimes autoimmune issues. All right. Almost done. Lifestyle modifications. I spoke to those earlier. it can consist of changing your diet, and other things and then long-term management. Once you get there, you learn how to stay in remission. That's the hope for all of us, right? [chuckles]

Nikki: Yes. That's a lot. I guess my question because I like things that are simple, is there one area in particular that you feel like kicked you over the top of the mountain in regards to how you were feeling, that really shifted you towards a healthy lifestyle?

Katherine: I want to say all of them, but I'll try to pick one. I would say, my top two--

Nikki: Two is good.

Katherine: All right. Thank you. Are stored emotions. I say slash nervous systems because they're very related. That's a big topic, and diet. The nervous system, it's so big. We could have a number of episodes focused on it. For now, I'll just say it was diet, which truly is something that people can start making. Start now. You can start making small changes every day and you'll notice a difference.

When I got my results back, they showed I had just major food sensitivities and that's one of the reasons I was feeling so terrible. I was eating foods that weren't agreeing with my body at the time, but in my mind, I was eating foods that were nutritious, for most people, but I didn't know that my body was having an immune response to those foods.

Just to be clear here, while finding out some answers, with that sensitivity test, a food sensitivity, it's a symptom. Originally I thought like, "All right, I've got another answer." It's a symptom of something bigger. The cause is usually something called leaky gut. You might've heard of it. It is what it sounds like. It's intestinal permeability, like holes in your gut and it's when foreign particles get to your bloodstream that should not be in your bloodstream. That just adds to you feeling-

Nikki: Terrible. Yes. I can imagine that. It's funny that you talk about-- not funny, but really eyeopening that you say that it's symptom and not a cause because so many times if you talk to people who aren't really knowledgeable about autoimmune and immune, they think that like, "Oh, well, the food that you're eating is causing your autoimmune response," but really it's the opposite.

Katherine: Yes. It's confusing.

Nikki: It's super confusing.

Katherine: For me, starting with diet made a huge difference. It helps so much. It helps with balancing hormones because if you're eating foods that are right for your body, veggies, protein, whole foods, it keeps your bowels moving and that gets those toxins out and I could go on and on about all this.

One more thing I want to say about it is if you're constipated and maybe eating a lot of processed food, things without a lot of fiber, everything literally gets backed up. This doesn't allow toxins to get out. They have to have somewhere to go. They are recirculated throughout your body. that just continues the cycle of you feeling awful.

We're going to take a quick break, and when we come back, we will focus on things that have not been so helpful on our journeys so that maybe we can help prevent you from making the same mistakes. Back in a few seconds.

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Presenter: Do you struggle with persistent symptoms like extreme fatigue, bloating, brain fog, and hair loss? For years, Katherine Williams couldn't get answers about her health, leaving her frustrated and feeling isolated. Now, with Hashimoto's diagnosis and health coaching practice under her wing, Katherine is helping others find relief and healing as a certified integrative health practitioner through her company, ThriveWell. Fill out the form on the Contact Me page at www.thrivewellwithk.com to book a free health coaching consultation today. Let's stop surviving and start thriving.

Female Speaker: Opinions, options, answers. You're listening to VoiceAmerica Health and Wellness.

Presenter: Welcome back to Chronic Conversations with Katherine Williams. We hope today's episode has helped you on your journey with chronic illness. Now, back to the show.

Katherine: Hey all and welcome back to Chronic Conversations. Now we're going to talk about some of the things that haven't been so helpful in our journey.

Nikki: Katherine, I think I want you to start. I have a couple of things in mind, but I really want to hear what were the things that were setbacks for you.

Katherine: All right. I like this. I don't like the negative things, but I think what I'm about to talk about is important. For me, negative mindset and negative self-talk. Did you know that our bodies can hear what we're thinking and of course saying, but thinking and saying?

Nikki: No, I didn't realize that.

Katherine: I think that's wild. I learned that apparently not soon enough. Anyway, if we don't believe that we can heal or our illness or their illness can go into remission, it won't. Sometimes or in the beginning, when I heard that, I was like, "I can't change my mindset." All I did was think about how negative my mindset was.

Nikki: Of course because your body doesn't feel good. When your body doesn't feel good, your mind doesn't feel good.

Katherine: Right. Another thing, too, our bodies like to be comfortable. Any kind of change feels uncomfortable. Our bodies don't want to do it. Staying stuck in an "I'm sick and always will be" cycle or mindset, it's going to keep you there. It took me a long time to, number one, realize that but also to get out of it. Mindset is everything. For example, I had a negative relationship with my body, especially when I started to gain weight. I immediately went to calories in calories out, eat less, exercise more mentality. Over time, I learned that this will actually increase stress and inflammation in the body, and it will make your body hold on to weight even tighter, which is wild, right?

Nikki: Wait a minute. Your body's going to hold on to the weight, even though you're trying to lose it?

Katherine: Yes. Isn't that crazy?

Nikki: Yes.

Katherine: After a while, of course, calories in calories out, eating less, exercising more, it'll work to a point. Your body needs to feel safe in order to let that weight go, and by safe, I mean, if you're not giving your body the food and nourishment that it needs it's not going to feel safe. It'll go into fight-or-flight mode and hold on to everything you're putting in it because it thinks it won't get more for a while. Once it does feel safe, your body will let go. When you can do that, man, that feels so good. It's so freeing, but you have to nourish and care for your body physically and mentally.

Nikki: Yes.

Katherine: What is something or some things that you found have helped you on your journey?

Nikki: You mean that did not help me on my journey?

Katherine: Sorry. Yes. Did not help you.

Nikki: Ask that question again. [laughs]

Katherine: Asking again. Okay, Nikki, what are some things that you found that were not so helpful on your journey?

Nikki: Two things stick out to me. The first is not advocating for yourself, or trusting your gut and your intuition. I think only you know what's right for you. There's no one else living inside your body. When I first got diagnosed, I completely trusted the first doctor that I had. Honestly, he didn't make the right decisions for me. At the time, the things he would say, the drugs he wanted to give me, the decisions he made, they didn't feel right when he told me, but I was so sick and I was so desperate for help that I just said, "Okay, you're the doctor, I'm going to trust you."

Eventually, I found a new doctor, and when I told that doctor what had happened with the previous one, he confirmed what I thought the whole time, that I was mistreated. Not in a malicious way, it was just based on his knowledge. After that, I feel much more confident in trusting my gut and my intuition and sticking up for myself when doctors are trying to make decisions for me and my body.

I think the second thing is lack of support from friends and family, and it's not because they don't love you. They love you so much, and they want you to get better, but it's because they don't understand autoimmune or chronic illness, and they're unable to validate what's actually happening to you. I cannot tell you how many times I would have conversations with people that are really close to me, and they would say something like, "Well, you're on meds, you're better now, right?" Or, "You're just stressed. If you meditate and do yoga, everything will be better." My favorite was, "Are you taking the right vitamins?"

I felt completely unheard when those things would happen. What it made me realize is that while I love those people and they're an important part of my life, I couldn't rely on them for support in my health journey. I found the people that were supportive and I would talk to them about stuff instead.

Katherine: Yes. That's such a good point. It can be stressful if you're trying to make somebody understand that doesn't, and not feel validated. That's really hard. Finding your group and your people.

Nikki: Yes, you got to go find your tribe. So many times people would say, "Oh, come out and get a drink with us." I'm like, "Well, I want to, but alcohol is the worst thing I can put in my body right now." Then it's like, okay, well, do I say no? Or do I just go out and have water or a mocktail? Trying to figure out what you're comfortable with because you don't want to isolate yourself. You still need to be social.

Katherine: Another thing for me, just speaking of that, the people that don't understand autoimmune, they're not living in your body, so they don't know exactly. We look fine for the most part.

Nikki: [laughs] Except for the bags under my eyes.

Katherine: Yes, on the outside, you don't look sick.

Nikki: No, not at all.

Katherine: That's something that I hear a lot. To me, it's like, "Okay, I don't look sick. They don't believe me." Then when I do stay home and this was in the past, this isn't anymore, but when you do stay home, you feel guilty-

Nikki: Of course.

Katherine: -because they don't get it and then beat yourself up. That was me at least.

Nikki: Wait, I just thought of another thing that didn't help me if I can throw it in there.

Katherine: Yes.

Nikki: Hiding. I remember my bed was my safe place. If ever I experienced something with the people that didn't know how to help me, I would go to my room and I would hide for days. That was so mentally unhealthy for me because you're isolating yourself. It would be a beautiful day. I would just look at the sun through the window, not thinking that it was okay for me to go outside because people either didn't believe me or didn't understand. It's okay now.

Katherine: I know. You found your people.

Nikki: I did.

Katherine: Okay. I think it's about time for us to wrap up. Thank you so, so, so much for joining me and sharing-

Nikki: Of course.

Katherine: Parts of your story. I appreciate it so much. As we wrap up, I truly hope that you all enjoyed listening. This is the beginning of a journey that I am so excited and grateful and thankful to take with you. I am extremely passionate about helping women break free from chasing symptoms. It's exhausting, and helping them get to the root cause of health issues. Everybody, I hope that you please join us again for future episodes as we figure out how to stop just surviving and start thriving together.

Presenter: Thanks for tuning in to today's episode of Chronic Conversations with Katherine Williams. We hope you have learned some valuable knowledge about chronic illness today. Until we talk again, have a beautiful week.