Marie-Noelle Marquis (00:05):
Welcome to the AIP Summit Podcast presented by AIP Certified Coaches. Hi, I'm Marie-Noelle Marquis from Urban AIP.
Jaime Hartman (00:12):
And I'm Jaime Hartman from Ready Set AIP. And together our mission is to equip you with the tools, knowledge, and support you need to effectively use the autoimmune protocol, whether you are aiming to take control of your own autoimmune health or guiding others through it.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (00:27):
And today we are celebrating a major milestone and taking a look back at the highlights from our first 50 episodes.
Jaime Hartman (00:40):
We started this podcast on topics relating to the autoimmune protocol in 2024, committed to bringing listeners a new episode every two weeks and featuring not just our voices, but that of our colleagues, fellow AIP Certified Coaches from around the world. And this week we are bringing you episode number 50, which feels honestly like a significant milestone. And we want to mark that milestone by revisiting and sharing with you some of the moments from our first 50 episodes that resonated with each of us personally.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (01:14):
Yes, there was a lot to choose from, but we eventually brought it down to the eight key moments that we wanted to highlight and share with you.
Jaime Hartman (01:25):
And we'll get into those in just a minute. But first, I know we have a couple quick time sensitive announcements we want to share with the listeners. This episode comes out on August 31st, which will lead us right into the Labor Day weekend. Marie-Noelle, what's going on over at Urban AIP this time of year that you can tell our listeners about?
Marie-Noelle Marquis (01:44):
Yes. This time of year is actually usually very busy for us. So we just launched our new dishes and we're now heading into our Labor Day sales. So that's always exciting. So for those of you who are not familiar with Urban AIP, we are a dedicated AIP meal and snack company delivering top quality organic AIP core elimination compliant meals right to your door. We rotate our menus with a season and in addition to our own recipes, we highlight some of your favorite AIP chef's recipes like Sonya Seidel, Mickey Trescot, to name a few. And for our Labor Day, we're offering an additional 15% off. So that's up to 25% off depending on your meal box size. So you simply use the code Labor Day 2026 at checkout to enjoy the sale. And in other news, Jaime, as you know, we are gearing up for the Autoimmune Association Hope Journey walk, which is happening in DC.
(02:41):
I believe they have a second in-person location and you can also join virtually. And it feels extra special this year since Urban AIP will be catering the breakfast before the walk at the DC Walk. So if any of our listeners want to join us, we would love to meet you in person, share the food with you, and then walk together for HOPE. We're also going to put a link in the show note if you'd like more info on the walk, would like to donate or join and/or join Team AIP. So we'd love to have you. And what about you, Jaime? What are you working on? Anything exciting?
Jaime Hartman (03:16):
Well, yes. In the spirit of back to school season, I want to let people know that the next session of the AIP Certified Coach Practitioner Training Program, which I co-teach with Mickey Trescot, is coming up very soon. The first day of class will be September 21st with enrollment opening up on September 2nd. Now, this is for practitioners who want to become AIP Certified Coaches to be clear. So health coaches, nutritionists, therapists, nurses, medical doctors, all kinds of people, anybody who works with patients or clients who have autoimmune disease. And you can go to aipcertified.com to learn more.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (03:59):
Awesome. And of course, again, we'll put all those links in the show notes. Great. So now let's get onto the highlights.
Jaime Hartman (04:07):
Right. So these eight key moments, they're not ranked in any particular order except that they help us tell the story of what we truly believe about living well with autoimmune disease and how the AIP movement that we're part of as AIP Certified Coaches can contribute to that. We're going to start with a moment from episode 46 when we answered a listener question about whether or not you really have to do AIP every day or if it is okay to take occasional days off.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (04:39):
Yes. And I like the way we answered this question because sustainability is what it's all about. And that doesn't mean sustaining an elimination diet. It's both making the protocol sustainable for you where you're at during elimination and then making the reintroduction process sustainable and then building lifestyle habits in a way that you can sustain them for a lifetime.
Jaime Hartman (05:04):
Yeah. This really reframes elimination as abundance rather than restriction, which is a message that holds up really no matter how long someone's been navigating the phases of AIP and even well after they've moved into and beyond the reintroduction phase. So let's listen to this moment.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (05:26):
Because the goal of elimination isn't to be good most of the time. It's to create that baseline that helps you trust what reintroductions will tell you later on.
Jaime Hartman (05:38):
And this is where we want to be really clear because we do think the framing here matters a lot. Doing AIP five or six days a week isn't almost AIP. It's just a different thing entirely. Doing that might be good for your overall wellbeing, but it won't help you evaluate your body's response to potential trigger foods so that you can determine what will best support you in the long term. Remember that the protocol is a tool and a tool only works when you use it the way it was designed. So if you are going to do AIP, you owe it to yourself to figure out how to do it in a way that you can sustain.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (06:22):
Okay. Now let's talk about that sustainability problem and why is it worth solving? I would say that if someone is starting the elimination phase and already is eyeing the weekend as an escape hatch, that's useful information. It's something about their current approach that is not sustainable. So instead of reaching for that escape hatch, I would suggest they start looking at the root cause of what is making their approach to AIP too hard to sustain for the duration that's needed. For me, it was time and then simply that I don't enjoy. I don't want to feel bad saying that. I'm just going to say that I don't enjoy cooking. I just don't like it.
(07:06):
And then as soon as I was feeling better, there was a glimpse of feeling better, I just wanted to get back to the work I was doing that I love. And again, then I would run out of time and I kept battling this feeling that I felt confined in the kitchen and I felt like this is a reminder that I'm not like everybody else. And so there's a lot of emotional struggle around feeling restricted. But there can be so many factors. It could be social pressure, food boredom, you could be just, again, feeling restricted or feeling deprived and naturally we feel like rebelling against that feeling. Also for me, I was switching from being vegan. So when I first started AIP, I was like, "Okay, fine, I'll reintroduce some meat." But I was eating very, very, very little protein and I was starving all the time.
(07:57):
So on that note, I think it's very important that we don't associate elimination phase with restriction. You're restricting your list of foods that you are eating during a certain period, but you're not restricting how much food you're eating. Maybe that's one way to look at the positive side. Okay, there's these foods I'm avoiding, but eat all the rest. Dive into the abundance, all you can eat, buffet and everything else.
(08:30):
So again, having that abundance mindset is really key to sustaining AIP in the day-to-day. One of the biggest tests of sustainability is when your routine or your environment changes, which leads to the next moment we want to share with you, which picks up on the mindset theme.
Jaime Hartman (08:49):
Yes. Our second highlight moment comes from episode 13 during which we featured the audio from a presentation by our colleague Dixie Mehrens on traveling and the autoimmune protocol. And Marie-Noelle, I know you had some new information you wanted to share about traveling and now might be a great time to do that.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (09:08):
Yeah. So it's something I found out recently, which I wish I knew when I recorded this episode and when I traveled in the past. So I don't know if I feel like it's been mentioned on social media, so I just went and I called some airlines to verify, but there is something called the Air Carrier Access Act where passengers with medical needs can check in an extra bag or an extra carry-on at no additional cost. And that covers medical dietary needs as well. So for example, if you've got celiac disease, but that can expand to other autoimmune disease as well, and you need to have access to food while you're on, you could check in an extra bag, bring an extra bag on the plane, in theory at no extra cost. Now, out of the airlines I called, United is the one that appears to be the most accommodating, but definitely unanimously the recommendation is calling ahead and making sure that the airline knows about it.
(10:15):
You mentioned that you have the medical dietary needs and then they should be able to accommodate. That should be added in the notes on your ticket.
(10:25):
That was the united part. They're like, yeah, that will be mentioned on the ticket. So when you show up to check in your bag, they should already know that that's okay. The key is, again, calling ahead, so it's noted in the reservation, and then the bag needs to contain only the medicine, so only food. Don't put in a shirt with it because suddenly it just becomes a general bag. And then overall, it sounds like the compliment bag itself might be easier than the carry-on. One, as we know for traveling, that there's an increased space limit in aircraft, so that might become more challenging to check in a carry-on that has the food in it. Also, anything like liquid or gel, like a yogurt. Technically with the note on your ticket, when you get through TSA, they should be, oh, okay, we understand this is okay.
(11:20):
You just need to mention it and they should let you through, but that's a should. So I don't think any of us wants to deal with a difficult TSA agent and then you're slowed down and late at your gate because you're having an argument about your bag. So it just sounded, when I was talking to airlines, that you might just want to avoid that for yourself and either in the carry-on, bring just what you need for your trip, like the food on the actual plane ride or just avoiding anything that's liquid or gel-like. Yeah, so I just thought it was really cool to have that option.
Jaime Hartman (11:52):
Thanks for doing the legwork to find out more information about that. Let's go ahead and listen to this clip then from Dixie, which really focuses mainly on the preparation and mindset around travel, and then you can apply the practical knowledge you've just learned as well.
Dixie Mehrens (12:11):
Before I get into the details of how to thrive on AIP while traveling, I do want to talk a little bit about mindset around travel. Some women, I know they won't advocate for themselves when it comes to food. They don't want to be a bother or a burden or ask questions at a restaurant or have to ask for the manager or even stand up for themselves with extended family who just don't get it. They don't want to appear rude or difficult, but really you don't want to not feel well on vacation because of something you ate just to appease someone else, especially on vacation. This is your life, this is your body, and you need it to be well so that way you can enjoy time with those that you love and do those things you want to do when you're out and about. I want you to know that you are important, that how you feel physically really does matter, that food concerns are valid and that food can be navigated successfully while traveling and safely.
(13:09):
And part of traveling on AIP is going into it kind of with the right mindset of why are you taking this trip? There's a lot of people, they live to eat, that's what vacation is to them. But for us on AIP, it's really not about the food. Vacation is a time to unwind, to see sights. It's a time to be away with our families to bond, to play, to do things, share experiences. It's really about connection and that is really an important part of AIP, connecting. That's a big part of our healing journey, and that's what vacation really is all about. So what is it that you are looking forward to? Dig into the other aspects of travel besides food that you love and keep that as your motivation for advocating for yourself. Realize that you don't have to eat like you do, but that you get to.
(14:04):
Actually, you're choosing this for your health and it makes you feel better when you do. And honestly, it's just not worth it when we don't feel well. And also remember that you're not alone. There's a lot of us. There's plenty of us out here that are doing the same thing as you when we're getting ready to travel.
Jaime Hartman (14:22):
So this really drives home the importance of advocating for your needs while traveling, which ultimately is about not shrinking yourself to avoid being a bother to other people. And just to note, before we transition to the next clip, I want to mention that Dixie's full presentation was part of the annual AIP Summit in 2021. And if you're a member of our AIP Summit community, you'll be able to find that in the archives if you want to see the full presentation.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (14:47):
Now moving on to the third key moment that we chose to share, it touches on another kind of shrinking yourself, and it comes from episode 26, which was on the role of calorie counting and the autoimmune protocol.
Jaime Hartman (15:02):
So here's a spoiler alert. We don't like calorie counting. As we often say, if you really feel a need to count something, count your nourishment.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (15:13):
That's right. It's so important to take the guilt out of food, and I'm very, very much against the whole calorie in and calorie out counting unless you're training for something. But if you're just living your everyday life, eating based on your hunger level is all you need. And again, we're taking consideration that someone who has a healthy digestion and can connect with the correct digestive clues, but so important to focus on nutrients density above all else and nourishing your body and getting that guilt out of our mind.
Jaime Hartman (15:51):
Yeah. Before we listen to this clip, I do want to just set up what you're going to hear. In episode 26, we incorporated a segment of a presentation that was originally shared at the 2022 AIP Summit by our colleague and eating disorder expert, Dr. Angela Grace. And that's whose voice you're going to hear speaking first. Then you'll hear our commentary following that segment, which included some of our personal experiences.
Dr. Angela Grace (16:19):
So in the world of eating disorders and weight-related issues, feeling fat is more detrimental than actually being fat. So weight-based stigma and discrimination, this is from the Yukon Red Center, so I highly recommend that you check out that website for all the best practice information. But what we found is that people who have a higher body weight are vulnerable to stereotypes, bias, bullying, and discrimination in our society. It's also known as weight bias or weight stigma. These experiences occur for children and adults in many aspects of life. There is weight discrimination in the workplace from healthcare professionals in the media. There's barriers in education and weight stigma in the interpersonal relationships. I personally just had a friend text me in distress that a new guy she started seeing told her that he really wanted his women to be much thinner than how she was. And so of course she ditched him because it's just not appropriate at all to be judging people on their size even before developing a relationship.
(17:34):
So weight-based stigma and discrimination is really, really harmful. Stigmatizing experiences are harmful, leading to both immediate and long-term consequences for emotional and physical health and reducing the quality of life. So if feeling fat is worse than actually having fat on your body, what it actually means is we are more afraid of being stigmatized for our body size. That is actually more harmful than having flesh on your body. So it is the relational trauma of being stigmatized that we are afraid of, not the actual weight itself.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (18:23):
That was Dr. Angela Grace. Again, this is a presentation she delivered at a 2022 AIP Summit that's entitled Why Not Weight? So highly recommend members of the AIP Summit community, and if you're not, join in to definitely listen to the entire presentation. It's really great. I love what she says about the externalized oppression creating internalized oppression. And it really resonated with me and I thought about, I would say that, "Oh, I'm someone who struggled with weight my entire life." And then I'll look at pictures of me and go, "Why did I think I was fat?" And even though I looked fine inside, I know how I felt and I know the pressure. I've mentioned that before, but I came to Los Angeles and I was working as an actor for many, many years, and that was the epitome of restricting your calories and weight and you're always too fat and you're always too fat.
(19:17):
And that rhetorics and how it does create that, you just carry it with you.
Jaime Hartman (19:24):
Yeah. Yeah. I really, really appreciated that sentiment. That is a great one for us to all remind ourselves. The vast majority of people, the weight that you perceive to be excess, it's that perception that is harming you far more than the actual weight.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (19:47):
Okay, moving on from body-related stigma and shame to a different kind of stigma, which is the isolation of having a rare, hard to explain diagnosis.
Jaime Hartman (19:58):
Feature a lot of stories of healing on the podcast, and in episode 23, we spoke with Crecy Ragan about her story of healing with Hashimoto's and Alpha-Gal syndrome. And I thought it was interesting when I looked back over the listener statistics from our first 50 episodes, and I found that this has stayed one of our most listened to over time, likely because Alpha-Gal syndrome itself is a growing and more highly searched topic. If you're not familiar with Alphagal, just know that it's something that's caused by bites from a certain type of tick that is unfortunately growing in prevalence in the United States.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (20:39):
In this clip, you will hear Crecy telling us about the scary trip to the emergency room that led to her diagnosis.
Crecy Ragan (20:45):
You
Marie-Noelle Marquis (20:51):
Continue.
Crecy Ragan (20:51):
Okay. Well, I was just going to say, now fast-forward, five years later, I had not really following AIP because I was feeling better, so I just was doing. And I started feeling bad again and I though, okay, I'm going to start back on AIP, which I did in January of. I don't remember the exact year, 2018 maybe. And that May, I was feeling really down. I felt kind of sick, like I had a bad cold, maybe the beginnings of the flu, and I didn't really know what was going on. And then I would get itchy feeling every now and then. And then one night I woke up in the middle of the night and I told my husband, "I think we need to go to the ER." And I was having trouble breathing and we had to go to the ER because I was having anaphylaxis.
(21:48):
And there again, I was bright red, and the doctors, they gave me things and it all calmed down and they said, "Well, okay, well, you're good. You're probably having a reaction to something." So I thought, "Okay, maybe it's something with AIP." But I went over my list, and that day I had had ground beef and a plantain wrap and avocado, and I thought, "I haven't eaten anything that should cause this." So the next week I went to an allergist and they tested me and he said, "Well, I think you may have..." He gave the long name, Alpha-Gal, whatever, which is a delayed reaction to, because it's a sugar carbohydrate that whenever you consume it, once you start digesting it, that's when you start having the symptoms. And I thought, okay. They called me, they told me I had that, and kind of went into a mourning period because I thought, oh no, I know I can work.
(22:44):
Yeah, what was your first thought because
Marie-Noelle Marquis (22:46):
It's not a common name where you're like, "What is this?" Oh,
Crecy Ragan (22:51):
I thought, "What are you talking. I've never heard of this." And then even at that time, there wasn't that much information about AlphaGal and with tick bites, and I though, "Surely they're mistaken, this makes no sense." Because I had a tick bite the month before, so it wasn't like, again, you have a tick bite and then it happened. It was the month before. I though, okay, I can't have anything mammal, and I didn't realize how in depth that was, so that was its own journey.
Jaime Hartman (23:29):
And we really, really appreciate Crecy's willingness to share her story. She talks about the fear of eating something that will trigger a severe reaction, which can definitely get in the way of healing, and it's something I know a lot of us can relate to, even if we don't also have to deal with AlphaGal or some other food allergy on top of our autoimmune disease. And then on the topic of fear, another type of fear that gets in the way of healing for a lot of people is that fear of just not doing AIP perfectly enough to even get started. I
Marie-Noelle Marquis (24:00):
Wanted to highlight a moment in that recent episode when a guest provided a simple but really brilliant way to take the pressure of recreating a recipe perfectly off your plate.
Jaime Hartman (24:13):
That's right. This next key moment we chose to share comes from episode 48, which featured Marcia Murata. You're going to hear my voice first, and then you'll hear Marcia chiming in to share how she helps her clients give themselves permission to do AIP imperfectly. There are so many people that I'll get into my practice or they'll come across in the AIP world who have literally known about AIP and wanted to do it for a decade now that we've been around for a long time. They're like, "I've been following you since the beginning." I'm like, "Well, the beginning was 15 years ago now." And they're like, "And I'm still struggling with trying to get started." And it is that guilt, it's that shame. It's like, "I can't do it perfectly, so I'm not doing it all." And I hate that they get that message from us.
(25:03):
I feel like we have to keep working hard to break through that, and I'm glad you said it because this podcast will help.
Marcia Murata (25:10):
But in the book, our book, the pictures are amazing. My goodness, the casserole, everything's so pretty and beautiful that when I first started AIP with my daughter, I though, "My gosh, there's no way. There's no way I can do this because look how it is. Look how it has to look." I purposely send my clients the very ugly food that I make at home. "Yes, I will. I'm going to send you the real life. "That's what I tell them.
Jaime Hartman (25:48):
Here's my can of sardines.
Marcia Murata (25:50):
Here's my can of sardines, and here's my cilantro, me literally holding. You know what I mean? So I go," Forget the beautiful pictures, forget the cooking books. "It just triggers something in people, especially the autoimmune people, the type A perfectionist, you know what I mean? So I go," Do not look at pictures on internet. I will send you pictures of what this recipe looks like, and it's messy. This is what it looks like, but it tastes good, so just try it. "That's what I tell them. I know it's ugly, but it tastes good and it's going to be good for you. That's what I tell them, because if it's not like that, they will not do it. I notice that.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (26:38):
So from the idea of giving yourself permission to do it imperfectly, which I absolutely love, which is really also it's self-compassion, we can move in the natural progression of self-knowledge or figuring out what actually works with how your brain is wired.
Jaime Hartman (26:57):
That is a great segue to the sixth key moment we want to share, which is from episode 40 and was titled Why Creatives Get Sick and What to Do About It, featuring Andrea Rossi.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (27:08):
Yes, I love that episode so much. This is one that had such a big impact on me. I have used creativity to navigate so many difficult or even just boring aspect of life, but I've always perceived, for some reason, the have-tos, there's a right way and a wrong way. There's a category of things that I put into this right or wrong, and it's really hard for me to break out of that. And protocols are like that, whether it's a supplement or a dietary protocol, it's like, okay, it has to be done this way. And I'm also type A, so I want things to be perfect. So Andrea's approach just made me realize that I could combine my need for creativity and this habit that I just apply to everything else in my life with actions that are related to my health. And that might seem completely obvious, but for me, it was the biggest aha moment ever.
(28:04):
And just the other day, it's allowed me also to, since we've recorded the episode with her, to pay attention and notice it, how I have this kind of
(28:14):
Behavior in my life. So just the other day I was realizing that. So I haven't been drinking water, and the main reason that I'm not drinking water is because I lost the bottle that I actually really like to use. I'm just not motivated to drink water anymore. And now I know that I can just let me just find a bottle or create or make a bottle that I love and that will make me want to drink water again. It's connecting with, "Hey, this is okay. This is who I am. I need to have a water bottle I'm excited about to drink water. Okay, whatever I need. Point is I need to drink water." So I feel like it's simple, but it's such a powerful tool to have about recognizing how an artistic brain functions or just how your brain functions. And
Jaime Hartman (28:58):
I want to just add before we listen to this clip that it's really worth saying directly that this episode wasn't just for people who identify as artistic or creative. This same idea, this idea of working with your own wiring of your brain instead of against it applies to everyone. So let's take a listen.
Andrea Rossi (29:18):
I do think that the creative tools piece is really interesting. It's been really fun in the investigation with different people of what that looks like. So basically when it comes to creative tools, we start to expand how we think about accessing nourishment. So what I mean by that is instead of maybe you read something, you're like, "I should X, Y, Z." Should X, Y, Z is not usually a very motivating phrase for creative people that want to feel unbounded. So that's where we can start using other tools to get to those places. So sometimes that might be. I run this This group that meets called Meditation and Meal Mapping. And the whole purpose is that we do a process where I'm guiding someone through and we're just connecting with what images draw us, what colors and sensations draw us. So we can use essentially different imagery to draw us towards our own nourishment and then from there make decisions.
(30:25):
So that's one way that we can do it in this more contemplative space. But I've also had individuals experiment with how they're using sound or how they're using setting or how they're using container to change how they connect with their nourishment. So an example, let's say you have a potter or a ceramicist. Oftentimes I want them to think about the container of their food as much as their food. What is the container? What is the vessel? What is the size of the vessel? What is the color of the vessel? What is the thing? Is it something you've created? Has it been gifted to you? Is it part of your relationship networks? In what ways can we move nourishment beyond just the food into the experience? Musicians, individuals that connect with music? Are there specific ambiances that you want with this as well? So there's ways that we can play with it in that respect if I'm assisting people with the creative element.
(31:23):
But then the other part of it can also be individuals just going into their own creative practices where oftentimes I'll give them something to think about. So for example, I want you to move through what you usually do. Move through the process as you would. And then within that given process, I just want you to identify moments where you could see an insertion of some kind of nourishment. And nourishment can be food, but nourishment can be rest. Nourishment can be self-connection. Nourishment can be listening to something that moves you. It can be connecting to your emotional body or to the concept of beauty. So there's different ways we can go towards it, but I guess my point is a lot of the creative act as it relates to someone's nourishment has to do with how they want to meet that process of discovery. So we're really experimenting, we're getting curious, we're discovering, and we're usually playing with a combination of presence, curiosity, and non-judgmentalism so that we can go through that process of seeing how we want to go towards that essentially.
(32:35):
And it can look really, really, really, really different depending on the person and how they're oriented and how they like to move through the world. But yeah, there's a lot of different practices. Sometimes there's guided flower practices where someone takes a flower essence and I'm having them journal. It can look really different depending on how someone's oriented. But the keynotes to it are we go towards presence, curiosity, and just a sense of loving kindness, not judging our experience.
Jaime Hartman (33:10):
Now we're going to shift gears from personal identity to understanding the mind-body connection more broadly by exploring some nervous system science.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (33:21):
So we were really fortunate to have psychotherapist Bianca Clarke join us in episode 17 to talk about mental health and autoimmune disease.
Jaime Hartman (33:29):
I know we talk a lot about how AIP isn't just a diet, but that it is a protocol that has many branches and also that it is just one component of your overall healthcare, which definitely includes care for your mental health. Mental health is not separate from your physical health.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (33:46):
A lot of us have the little voice and story that we start to tell ourselves that we might be a burden to people because of our illness. Having an increasing feeling of not fitting in because of our dietary needs or our energy level, like feeling the shame, feeling embarrassed. I have a client who shared that when she gets a flare and has trouble walking, her partner feels embarrassed to be seen with her. Incredibly devastating to her mental health obviously. So then talking about prioritizing mental health becomes so important because chronic illness can have all of those effects on us. Safeguarding our mental wellbeing is so crucial. Leaning into the community, for example, can be a way to help that connection with people who get it.
Jaime Hartman (34:31):
Agreed. Now let's hear what Bianca said in that episode.
Bianca Clarke (34:38):
We often miss or forget actually that it's not just our physical health that we need to look after. It's not just about diet or physical activity and medication. Actually, it's about looking after our psychological, our mental health as well. And so when we work on our mental health, as we start to lower levels of depression and anxiety, even lowering things like stress as well, it reduces inflammation. And for us with autoimmune disease, that's ultimately what we're looking for is reduce inflammation in our body. And that's what will happen as you start to reduce the depression and anxiety. Another thing as well is digestion. So digestion becomes better and improved as we start to lower levels of stress in particular, improved sleep. So if you want to get good night's sleep as well, you definitely need to work on those worries, work on that anxiety and start to just calm things down.
(35:34):
If we go to bed and we've got a head full of worry and anxiety, it's just going to put us on high alert. Our cortisol's going to increase and we're not going to be able to get to sleep. And if we do get to sleep, we're likely to then wake up again in the middle of the night and our body's just not rested enough to be able to calm itself down and just be able to rest fully.
(35:54):
So there's so many different reasons as we might want to work on our mental health to improve our physical health. And especially for us, there is that regulation of the immune system as well. Our immune systems are often quite unregulated of course, or dysregulated should I say, but working on the nervous system and mental health will help with that. And also pain as well. So as we work on our anxiety and depression, pain signals become less too. And that's another key thing as well is that a lot of us are living with pain. And if we can start to lower those feelings of pain and start to, I was going to say live a pain-free life ideally, but we will feel pain at times. But as we start to lower that pain sensitivity, of course we'll then feel able to do more, which then impacts on the depression further.
(36:39):
And so what happens is it really creates a positive vicious cycle, sorry, a positive cycle that's not a vicious cycle anymore, but one that is positive for us and helps us to live in the way that we want to basically.
Jaime Hartman (36:53):
I actually like that phrase about positive vicious cycle. Let's take back the word vicious and it's vicious in a good way. You talked about digestion right away and that made me think too that when we're always talking in this podcast and everything we do as AIP Certified Coaches that AIP is not just a diet, but obviously that's a big part of it. The foods that you do and don't eat are really kind of why we're all here talking about this. But if your digestion is struggling, is impaired for any reason, you're going to not get as much out of that diet piece as you would otherwise. So right there is, again, that idea of everything connects. And then sleep, we know we need to get plenty of good beneficial sleep. So you touched on all of those things, which really shows how everything's so interconnected.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (37:41):
The nervous system and the body work together internally, and we can also connect the nervous system to the world outside of us, which leads right into our final key moment that we want to share as we look back at those first 50 episodes.
Jaime Hartman (37:57):
Yeah. I thought this one would be a really good closing for this look back episode. As every one of these eight key moments that we're sharing reminds us in some way that healing isn't really dependent on strict rules, but it's really dependent on our things like connection, whether that is connection to community, connection to your own body or connection to the natural world, which is what this final key moment is about.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (38:24):
Yes. So the science of connecting with nature is absolutely fascinating. And again, it's so simple and so obvious. So the data that shows the health benefit of having an awe moment, it's a really good reminder that we are part of nature and the more connected to life we are, the more alive we feel.
Jaime Hartman (38:44):
So we close with this highlight from episode 39, The Healing Power of Nature.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (38:56):
I want to start with something that kind of blew my mind when I first read about it, which is the research on awe, because I don't think most people connect the emotion of awe with immune function, but the link is real. So there's researchers at UC Berkeley that looked at what happened in the body when people experience the awe moment, that feeling that you get when you're in front of something vast and beautiful, like a mountain range or a huge old growth forest or the ocean. And what they found was that the sense of awe significantly reduces pro-inflammatory cytokines, so specifically the cytokines associated with autoimmune activity.
Jaime Hartman (39:39):
So let me make sure I understand this. We're talking about the feeling of being small in front of something enormous. That actually has a measurable anti-inflammatory effect?
Marie-Noelle Marquis (39:51):
Yes. And then the working theory is that awe activates a kind of a positive overwhelm, I would say, and then interrupts the rumination loop that you were mentioning. So you can't stay in your head spinning anxious thoughts when you're generally awed by something, and that mental shift has a biological correlation to it.
Jaime Hartman (40:18):
I love that because it really reframes what a healing practice can look like. A healing practice doesn't need to be something intense. It doesn't need to be like a breath work session or using a meditation app religiously. It could just be standing at the edge of the field and just looking.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (40:36):
Exactly. Going somewhere beautiful.
Jaime Hartman (40:40):
Now, the piece I wanted to talk about today is about something called Shinrin Yoku, which is the Japanese practice of forest bathing. This has been studied extensively, particularly in Japan and South Korea.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (40:54):
And for anyone who's new to this term, it doesn't mean actually bathing in the forest, although I guess you could if you wanted to, if there's water, but it means spending the intentional slow time in a forest environment, so absorbing it through all your senses.
Jaime Hartman (41:10):
Right. Forest bathing. Yep. And no exercise is even required. There's no goal. It's just being present in the forest. And the immune findings here are remarkable. Multiple studies have shown that after just two hours of forest bathing, people show a significant increase in NK cell activity. NK stands for natural killer. So natural killer cells are a key part of immune surveillance. These cells are the ones that find and destroy abnormal or infected cells. And in autoimmune disease, NK cell function is often impaired or dysregulated. So this is directly relevant. And the study found that the effects of this NK cell activation lasted for up to seven days after a single two-hour session. So one day in the forest had immune effects that persisted all the way into the following week. Really amazing. Researchers think the mechanism has to do with the aromatic compounds that the trees and the plants release because those aromatic compounds are essentially their own natural defense chemicals.
(42:17):
When we breathe them in, they seem to have a direct biological effect on our immune cells.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (42:25):
That wraps up our look back over the first 50 episodes of the AIP Summit Podcast. We hope that through these eight key moments, you are left with some feeling that being involved in the AIP movement means being part of something larger than yourself, whether that's something is the natural world, a diagnosis you finally have a name for, or a community of people doing this alongside you. The feeling of connection really is the thread running through 50 episodes of this show.
Jaime Hartman (42:56):
And it's what we plan to continue into the future. As we always say, AIP is more than a diet. It's a protocol with multiple branches and multiple ways to approach it. Through this podcast, AIP Certified Coaches aim to bring you resources so that you can feel confident about doing AIP on your own, but with the knowledge that you aren't doing it alone.
Marie-Noelle Marquis (43:18):
We'll be back with a new episode in two weeks so you can find the AIP Summit Podcast in your favorite podcast player. Be sure to follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Jaime Hartman (43:28):
And if you would like to leave us a rating and a review, it would help others find this podcast where we are committed to helping you use the power of the autoimmune protocol to elevate your wellness journey to new heights. The AIP Summit Podcast is a Gutsy By Nature production. Content presented is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
