I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis based on CRP, rheumatoid factor and x-rays. Although I am under the care of a rheumatologist, I have not taken any conventional treatments. Luckily, my rheumatologist has been supportive of my personal choice in my path back to wellness.

What became evidently clear to me as I focused on healing was that conventional medicine solutions did not address root causes of illness. This led me to functional medicine and eventually I left my 30 year engineering career to become a functional medicine certified health coach. As I continued my research and learning, I came to understand that underlying my illness was a lifetime of perfectionism and people-pleasing resulting from limiting beliefs stemming from childhood. These created stress in the body which eventually reached a tipping point, changing gene expression and resulting in rheumatoid arthritis. My genes were responding to a stressful environment of not only physical stressors, but stressful thoughts and feelings. Now I tap into my personal power - which we all have - to release inflammatory foods, thoughts and feelings so that I create a positive environment for gene expression. Always a work in progress!

I absolutely believe that my illness was a result of stressful thoughts and feelings. When we are stressed, and our nervous system is constantly in flight-or-flight mode, all the autonomic nervous system operations become inefficient which then causes breakdown in the physical body and turns on genes for illness. I have worked with many people with rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions, and this seems to be a consistent theme. When I help them release stress, their symptoms subside. Releasing stress can go a long way in prevention and treatment of chronic conditions.