I started to notice when it would happen at certain times of the month, pretty regularly Um, I knew that it was connected to my cycle. He didn't, 'cause he had no idea what was going on, but he knew it was just random acts of violence to him, Exactly. It was what, what's wrong with you today? Is this worth the fight? What is going on? You had several years, or at least a year of severe, like almost 10. Outta 10 pain. You said within days it's almost nothing. Yes. How is that possible? I found out what was causing my problems. I addressed the problem Welcome to Transform with Dr. Maggie Yu Podcast, where education meets results. I'm Dr. Maggie Yu, your guide with nearly three decades of experience in root cause medicine. Here, we dive deeper into the root causes of chronic disease through interviews, case studies, and trainings. Hey everybody, welcome to today's interview with Pam. Pam is a teacher educator who, uh, has been struggling with Ray nodes, which a lot of you don't even know. It's autoimmune, and your doctors also don't know this, and it evolved and turned into rheumatoid arthritis, and she was really concerned about this having a severe impact upon her ability to work out and have healthy relationships with people around her. With her severity of her symptoms and she struggled massively with food. Okay. And food clarity. And she was fighting her rheumatologist who felt like food made no difference. I'm Meg, U M D, functional and Holistic Medicine and owner of Transform, and we have an online program called Transform Autoimmune Disease Naturally. And we also have a hormone balancing program called My Hormone Masterclass. To learn more, join our Facebook group, transform autoimmune Disease Naturally, or you can go to dr maggie u.com, uh, to learn more about us in our programs. If you're watching on YouTube or Instagram right now, make sure to follow us and like us. And if you're on YouTube, ring the bell to get notified and we have a new video. I hope you enjoy this interview, and this is Pam and this is her journey. To her RA and Reno's turnaround. Alright, Pam, let's introduce yourself. Hi, uh, my name is Pam. Um, I was of a few years ago diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Well, it started with the renos. Um, I noticed there was some circulation issues, um, and then probably Within a year or so, I started developing swelling and inflammation and joint pain. Mm-hmm. Um, Most of it started in my hands and then slowly moved to other joints. You know, a lot of people, Pam, don't know that Ray nodes is actually autoimmune. And if we even describe what Ray nodes is, it's actually extreme pain in tips of the fingers or toes. Mm-hmm. and your to fingers and tips and toes may even turn blue or pale white. And it's extremely painful. It's made a lot worse by cold, obviously, but can happen at any time. And that is autoimmune. And yet a lot of doctors don't even know that. And to me it sounds like this preceded your actual rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis by quite a bit of time. Right. How severe was your rain notes? It's worse, obviously in the colder months. Yeah. Um, anything will trigger it. That's cold. Yeah. Um, so severe. And then what about joint pain? At what level would you say your joint pain has been prior to this program? Some days a 10. Okay. Um, it would come and go depending on the day, depending on what I was doing sometimes. Um, but there were days that I couldn't move, I would just be in tears because I just couldn't move my hands. Mm-hmm. um, you know, some days were better than others, but it got to the point where it was bad. Have you been able to work while trying to deal with these severe symptoms? I have. Um, it's been difficult. Mm-hmm. um, I'm a teacher, so writing on the board, erasing the board. right. Pulling the marker off of the, or the cap off the marker. Um, not easy. What were some of the other symptoms that you dealt with that you felt like was seriously life altering? Um, fatigue. The fatigue was some days just unbearable. I'd come home from work. I mean, I have full days, I have busy days, so I just feel like I was just running myself ragged when I didn't really feel like I was doing that much, but I was just constantly going. But the minute I would stop, I would just crash and there was no, you know, I'd be in bed early and, I mean, I'd go to bed early anyway, but there would be nights I couldn't stay awake. Mm-hmm. Watch the evening news You know, you know, when you're dealing with a lot of those symptoms, a lot of people don't think about immunity as having all these different targets and affecting everything. Not just your fingertips, not just your joints, but really overall sense of fatigue. How did it impact upon your mental health and your general sense of identity? It, it was almost like Demoralizing because I've always been an active person to start to feel like there were things I just couldn't do because I didn't have the energy. Mm-hmm. um, things that I'd have to cut back on because I just, I just couldn't do them. And I had no idea that at the time that it was connected to that mm-hmm. Um, and of course then that starts causing other, you know, you start to worry about other things and. You know, your mind starts going into places where you're like, what? What's going on? What is happening? And not even understanding that it was connected. I also heard the boyfriend said there was a little bit of irritability, Yeah. Um, I, as I started to notice when it would happen at certain times of the month, pretty regularly um, I knew that it was connected to my cycle. He didn't, 'cause he had no idea what was going on, but he knew it was just random acts of violence to him, Exactly. It was what, what's wrong with you today? Is this worth the fight? What is going on? And he just, he knew that things were starting to, but he didn't, he, he had no clue why, like to him, he wasn't seeing what I was going through. So you're just two months in here. Right. And my question is, where are you now with these symptoms? Almost non-existent Um, my pain has improved immensely, and once I started realizing specifically where the pain was coming from, what was causing it, within a matter of days, you had several years, or at least a year of severe, like almost 10 outta 10 pain. You said within days is almost nothing. Yes. How is that possible? I found out what was causing my problems. I addressed the problem. What the hell was causing your problems? Just in inquiry, you guys wanna know? There was a couple of things. Um, hormone imbalances were definitely one of them that hell yes, we working towards. Um, a big one was some of my foods. Mm-hmm. Um, I've always had a suspicion, I couldn't tell exactly what it was because I don't eat one thing, so To figure out the variables was very difficult. Mm-hmm. I had some suspicions based on things I was commonly eating. Yeah. But once I found out Yep, that's what it is. How did you find out? People wanna know everybody's on the elimination diet? Hell, How did you find out? Uh, went through the food mapping process, um, which seemed to be quite simple, Um, and I was just amazed. Like, like I said, I had suspicions, but I had no way of knowing. Nobody would Talk to me about it. If I'd ask, I'd mentioned it to my rheumatologist, like, I know there's an issue with my food and I, you know, no, there's no connection. There's no connection. Where are you with, um, the irritability, the fatigue? That's a slower process, but it's definitely improved. My boyfriend has noticed Um, he told me, he said, I don't know what you're taking. I don't know what you're doing, but keep doing it. 'cause he's definitely noticed a difference in my mood, in my demeanor, just. I'm happier, I feel better. I feel more positive. Wow. It's, it's huge. It's refreshing to know that It's a pretty simple process and a simple fix. It doesn't have to be like this wild dolled land of the west, which is like, I feel like in conventional medicine, all you do is they talk about medication or procedures, right? Yep. What I love is to bring the medical science into this and say, here's your data. Here's the clarity of how you use each of these natural tools based on your data, and it's not hard once you understand the system. Right. you are like simple. Yes, simple. Not really right? But you gotta learn the system and then it becomes simple, right? I'm, I'm not a doctor, but I'm trained in biology, so I understand like there's a cause and effect to a lot of things and there has to be some type of a reasoning behind things. It's that things don't just spontaneously happen. So what you just said defies 99% of how conventional doctors are trained because your rheumatologist just told you that food has nothing to do with your pain or symptoms. Right. All right. Question. Um, what's your favorite part of working with me and my team? I love the community. Mm. Um, it's not just one Person trying to figure out one thing. Um, you get to work with a whole bunch of other people that are going through similar things. You kind of get to see some of their issues that you don't think apply to you, but realize, oh, hey, that, that could be my problem too, or, yeah, I had that question and didn't think about it. Just the interaction with people, the positive community. That, to me was a huge part that was beneficial. What was in the program itself? You said there's a lot of different things that really worked. What do you think was your biggest medical aha where you're like, Ooh, that was a game changer? The food mapping was a game changer for me. Okay. Um, that to me, like I said, it's, it's just one of those things that I knew was an issue and I had no way of knowing how to even address it. So like that was huge for me. Why did you almost not join the program? Honestly, I knew it was a time commitment. Um, a lot of people that I'd seen go through it, you know, they said, well, there's homework every week and there's weekly meetings, and, you know, that made me nervous just because it was just that hesitation of, can I really do this? Is it something I can really make an effort? I, I know I needed to, I knew that in the back of my mind, but there was just that hesitation of You know, how big of a commitment is this? Okay. And how did you make it work? Like was it as, was it as big and hard as you thought to commit yourself in this way? No. No. It got to the point that once I got invested in it, and once I started getting into the routine, I. It, it kind of almost consumed me in a way where it's like, okay, what's my next piece of information I need to address? What's my next, next thing I gotta do? Well, it's kinda like, who the hell doesn't wanna feel better in a couple days if within a couple days of knowing your food, mapping data, your joint pain went away? Like it's almost like, what else is next? Right, right. It got to the point where I, I wanted more because it was okay. I know. All right, I got that information. I understand that. Let's move on. And, and I wanted to do more and it kept It became something I wanted more of rather than having to make it a commitment. I love that. What is something you learned about you during this process that surprised you? I think the mindset piece, which was a big part. Um, I've never, I mean, I guess everybody has their own critic. I've never really thought I was negative in any way, but I started realizing that. It's really easy to have a negative mindset about Yeah. Anything. And that can totally spiral and you don't even realize what it's doing. You know, I tell this story, Pam, where I said, um, one of the things like, I think about like how focus is power and also the language you choose, the words that you choose. Mm-hmm. to describe a talk actually has a lot of power, right? I would wake up and each morning I would say F M L. You know what that means? Yep. Which is, you know, my life. And not realizing that that is a very negative mindset. I'm also using words that's cursing myself. If you think about that in my life, and then what? And I'm focusing a lot of energy on that. Every single fricking morning, first thought, last thought. Mm-hmm. I mean, how powerful is that? And then think about what I was manifesting more and more of. Right. Or crap. Right. So, totally. So what you're saying is changing how you think really manifests different results. Absolutely. And I, that was something that I, I mean, you know, that, you know, stay positive. You know, you hear those things all the time and, but you never really understand. How it affects you until you really address it. Yeah. And for me it's like I call your ass on it. Mm-hmm. Yep. We all call your ass on it. People in your pod will call your ass on it and our mindset coach will call your ass on it. Another question I have is, what is something that you can do today or right now effortlessly? I have always been somebody who works out. I would go to the gym religiously. Um, and as my rheumatoid arthritis got worse, it got to the point where I couldn't pick up. A five pound weight. You know, I used to swing around 35 pound weights like nothing. You know, the men in the gym would pick on me, call me Helga, whatever, like, I, whatever. But it got to the point where I just could not do the simplest of things because I just, my grip was horrible. My, the weakness, the pain, and it just, it got to the point where I'm trying to figure things out to modify things and. It just, it just got to the point where I almost gave up. And so slowly I've been able to get back into things and I have no problem picking up a lot of things, Um, I'm still working on it. I'm still gaining my strength back, but, um, I. That's huge for me because I feel like that's something that's part of my day. It helps me get started. It's just one of those things that that's my time. That's for me, it was something that was almost taken away from me that I am slowly getting back. Pam. That was part of your identity? Yeah. It was something that made you feel like you were a healthy, vibrant person in spac. Exactly. I know you were saying that you were worried being a busy professional, that you wouldn't have the time to be able to commit to this program, and you were able to make the time to do that. In hindsight, right now, looking back, like right now, who would you recommend this program for? Everybody Um, I, I look at this and I, I see friends that I have that have Not necessarily an autoimmune disease, but symptoms of something or problems with something. And I'm just like, oh my God, you have to know this information. You have to learn this information because your problem will go away. And I feel like it's not just for autoimmune disorders. It's actually not It's not, I mean, I just, there's so many things to address that are just simple everyday things that we just brush off and think. Mm-hmm. oh, it's just an ailment. It's no big deal. You know, that's how things started for me. Like, oh, no big deal. My hands are cold, they're turning white, whatever. Oh, I'm a little puffy. Maybe I had too much sodium. But no, like, there's so much behind it that we don't realize because we, we ignore it. I know that when we improve our own health and our own mental health, it really affects our relationships. And just think about the relationships with maybe the top couple closest people to you. What do you think is one positive or fun change that has happened because you freaking saved your own life here? Well, I've mentioned my boyfriend. Um, we are communicating better because Im able to communicate better when I am feeling out of sorts. I know what the issues are and I can say to him, You know, this isn't you, you know? Give me a minute. You know, we can, we can work through this. It's not a problem. My mother I would put into that category. I feel like I can share more with her about my ailments, about what's going on. She's, she understands I, you know, she's somebody that I can say, Hey, this is what's going on. This is the issues, these are the things that I'm addressing. Mm-hmm. and, and she knows that because, you know, I talk about the food and, well, I have an Italian mother, so, you know, figure out the food there and, and it's everything I probably shouldn't have. And I showed her my results. I, I, I physically showed her what my food mapping results were and she understood it because she saw it. Like she saw what my data was, she saw what I had. So there was no question. It wasn't like, are you sure you can't have that? Are you sure? How about just a little bit, like the data's really powerful. Yeah, I was just gonna say, just being able to talk to her and tell her those things, knowing that if she sees what I'm seeing, she's gonna understand and she's gonna be supportive. I think one of the things we lose is self-trust and self-confidence as we go through illness, for example, and one of the things I love is teaching, being able to be in an educational program where I'm actually teaching you exactly how to understand this data. What are false positive is false negatives. How do you share this data with other people around you? It's incredibly validating for you, but it's also incredibly validating for other people in your life. To see that and understand the data and your confidence is infectious. right. If someone was hesitating to even click the button to watch the our five pillars training, what would you say to them right now? The person who's hesitating to like, click the button to just watch our training. What would you say? Just do it. Just do it Just do it. Uh, there's nothing, you have nothing to lose. Just do it. I knew just with the information that I looked at, that I know the data is accurate. I know that the information you talk about, I know this is true because, well, you feel better, right? And I'm educated, I know that this is, you know, a lot of people are hesitant and say, well, is it really work? Is it really true? Is it No, I, I, I know it does. Before I even got into this, because I. Like I said, I, I am, I know the background, you know the background, and we have over a hundred videos of interviews with people who've been through our programs, right? I mean, how many, how many programs or how many doctors have over a hundred videos of people talking about their own experience with it? Right. You were watching those videos two months ago and now you are on a one right? I was too. Every day. What all? What's next? What's next? I love it. Wow. Awesome. Well, Pam, thank you so much for your time. This was an incredible share and I'm really happy for your results. I. Thank you. I appreciate everything. Boy, that was a crazy good interview from Pam and there were a couple things that I really liked that Pam pointed out, which is she's somebody who is a educated professional. She's a teacher trained in the sciences, and she said that she understood the scientific mechanisms and results that we were talking. In our program. I am an MD after all with autoimmune disease, but she said that the most impactful thing actually for her and her family was knowing the data, the blood work results from her food mapping and understanding how to understand the data properly. So that is key. It's a unique process we call food mapping, and that is part of our program Transform All right. Thanks everybody. Thank you for joining us today. If you're inspired to dive deeper and work directly with me and my team at Transform, click the link in the podcast description and book a call. For more resources and discussions, be sure to check out our YouTube channel and join our thriving Facebook community with over 90, 000 members. The link to join is in the description. Talk soon.