Over my healing journey, I have found, the key to building a foundation of health and wellness is focusing on 5 aspects within my control. These “pillars of health” lay the groundwork to be successful with my treatment plans and reduce day to day symptoms symptoms. Once I got out of my own way and started getting back to the basics – hydration, whole foods, sleep, stress management and movement – everything fell into place!
Bee Venom Immunotherapy (BVT) doesn’t work alone – I needed to get really honest with myself and look at the big picture of my lifestyle. Reality was my gut health and nervous system dysregulation also needed to be addressed along with these key foundational components of healing chronic illness listed below.
5 Foundations of Healing include:
1. Whole Food Nutrition
Like you and many others in the chronic illness community, I ate a healthy diet with lots plenty of protein and vegetables/fruit. I would avoid processed foods and focus on eating the rainbow of whole foods. It was when the elimination diets started to turn my world upside down and absorption issues surfaced that lead to my malnourishment. I was not absorbing the nutrients I was eating and this caused a lot of vitamin/mineral deficiencies and food sensitivities to creep in from intestinal permeability aka leaky gut. Looking back it seemed everything I ate made me feel unwell! I have come very far in my gut healing journey, once I addressed the root cause infections in my gut. I do not obsess over the little things like I used too, but it helps that I am feeling better overall. It took years of rebuilding my food relationship to get to this point of finding balance. Becoming fearful of food is all too common within the chronic illness community, especially if specific foods make you sick. Using a mindful eating approach and nervous system regulation techniques before eating helped me create a positive food relationship again immensely!
2. Hydration
On average, Americans typically consume about 1 L (4 cups) of drinking water per day, which doesn’t sound like enough, right? Drinking enough water seems to be a struggle for a lot of people. At the end of the day, there is no getting around the fact that getting enough water is vital to your health. Water has the ability to flush toxins out from the body and promote regular bowel movements. As a general rule of thumb, it’s best to aim for half of your body weight in fluid ounces (ex: 150 lbs =75 fl oz of water). The exact amount of total water needed in a day depends on many factors included – age, weight, activity level, climate, and overall health status (if you are fighting acute/chronic infections). For me, I sweat alot on my “detox” days between exercise, coffee enemas and sauna time, so I prioritize my water!!
In order to stay hydrated, you can always drink plain water, but to jazz it up, you can always add fresh mint, kiwi, parsley, lemon, cucumbers and/or berries! Also, being mindful of implementing soups and water-dense fruits/vegetables like watermelon, strawberries, cucumbers, zucchini and tomatoes into your daily rotation can help keep you hydrated as well.
Adding in electrolytes to your water daily is proven to help stay adequately hydrated and energized. Scientifically speaking electrolytes like sodium & potassium assist in keeping your cells hydrated. There are so my great brand out there – just be mindful of the sugar content they like to sneak in there. My favorite brands are Lyteshow, Jigsaw Adrenal Cocktail and Hydrant! Plus, I add minerals to my water, since I use a Reverse Osmosis Water filter for my drinking water. (I could talk all day about water, but I won’t bore you with the details here!)
3. Sleep Quality
Sleep….The most commonly forgotten pillar of health, but one of my favorites! Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love my bedtime routine – I even have an alarm on my phone to start to wind down. Research shows that when you sleep, your body is in repair mode and naturally detoxing cellular waste. Lack of sleep is directly associated with an increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cravings. Additionally, it increases the hunger hormone, ghrelin, while correlating the satiety hormone, leptin. Anyone healing chronic illness should prioritize good quality sleep to support their healing journey, in my opinion!
Tips to prioritize sleep include: aiming for 7-9 hours of sleep a night, be consistent with bedtime/wakeup time to support your circadian rhythm, turn off all screens 1 hour before bed to minimize blue light exposure, and lastly create a relaxing bedtime routine to signal your brain that its time to rest. The nervous system regulation program I was a member of, Primal Trust, really helped me determine the best bedtime routine to stimulate the vagus nerve promoting calm! Doing eye yoga and listening to a sleep sound bowl sessions are my some of my favorite ways to chill.
TIP: Adding a red lightbulb to your nightstand lamp is a nice touch to help with reducing blue light exposure when I journal before bed!
4. Stress Management
Stress is a part of life for all of us. For those of us with chronic illness such as Lyme disease, not only do we have emotional stress, but also daily physical stress on our body more than the average person too! I needed to learn ways to manage stress in a healthy way and this is where Primal Trust helped me determine the best coping strategies that worked for me.
From an emotional standpoint, stress can look like overfilling your calendar, lacking boundaries, or worrying about things out of your control – resulting in your body shifting into “fight or flight” mode. Poorly managed stress can lead to a laundry list of chronic illnesses and suppresses our immune response, which elevates the inflammation in our body altering blood sugar control, digestion issues, and hormone function just to name a few.
When the body is under both physical and emotional stress, cortisol is released from the adrenal glands causing blood sugar to rise to send energy to our muscles to “run away from the tiger!” As you can imagine, if this is chronic, this takes a toll on your immune system and overall functionality of your body as a whole. Over time, chronic stress can deplete nutrients, weaken the immune system (with risks of developing autoimmune conditions), disrupt digestive processes, and cause blood sugar fluctuations.
Simple ways to turn on the parasympathetic nervous system (and turn off the sympathetic nervous system) is to incorporate deep breathing throughout your day – it can be done anytime and anywhere! Commit to 10 minutes a day and you will see your mindset shift turn your day around. My favorite is sitting in front of my red light lamp and practice alternate nostril breathing to break up my day! I work from home, so that is a perk I suppose! Lola girl loves too use this as an opportunity to sit on my lap and snuggle.
Additionally, being mindful of a clean environment to put less physical stress on your body is key to progressing on your healing journey. This means low toxins in your home ranging from cleaning supplies, clean air and mold free living! Check out this blog to learn more on keeping your home air clean when healing and beyond!
5. Daily Movement
Moving your body everyday is pivotal for foundational health! The key is finding movement that brings you joy to aid in creating a sustainable habit. Exercise is an incredible way to support not only body composition, but immune function, hormone health, and stress management. Moderate exercise at least 5 days a week has been shown to support the immune system, lower inflammation and aid in weight loss, along with promoting longevity. One study shows that people who walked at least 20 minutes a day for a minimum of 5 days a week had 43% freer sick days!
After I rescued Lola my daily walking nearly doubled. It became a priority to develop a structured walking routine for her and organically, I worked in more movement day to day, which was a win – win for the both of us!
I have been doing strength training three times a week, with slower yoga sessions on sting days. It is my goal to pick up running again with Lola! I used to love running and feeling the desire to get back into it again. Stay tuned on my first 5k planned in Spring 2025, since getting sick anyway!
Key Takeaways
Whole food nutrition, hydration, sleep quality , stress management, and movement all work in synergy to support us all on our healing chronic illness. Make sure to focus on all these elements as best as you can and your treatment plan with your doctor and it will go a heck of alot smoother! Speaking from experience. My Healing Journey using Bee Venom Therapy has been a lot smoother, once I looked at the big picture to support my body.
This article is for general informational purposes only and not intended for medical intervention. Please seek medical advice from your medical doctor or registered dietitian before making any nutrition or lifestyle changes.
Hiya! My name is Amy. I am a Lyme Warrior navigating my healing journey with my emotional support dog, Lola by my side! I rescued Lola girl in 2022 when I needed her the most, she is an Australian Shepherd/Border Collie Mix with lots of love to give. Buzz along with us as I share all things pet therapy, dog training and my personal healing journey from Lyme and all the things that accompany it!