Hello my autoimmune community, all my Sjögrens ladies, and jets. I wanted to bring up a lot of people have been again, this is my Sjögren's journey. I've been talking about this a lot lately and I've been getting a lot of feedback. I love every single one of you. How we've been talking and helping each other. And I feel like this is making progress with a lot of people and helping others. But I wanted to talk about bringing down the inflammation because a lot of people are asking me, like, how did you get the inflammation to go down? What's working and what's not working for you? So let's talk about Sjögren's. So it's an autoimmune disorder that's caused by inflammation in the body. The higher the inflammation, the bigger the flare up, the more the symptoms. So what do we have to fight? The inflammation. How do we fight the inflammation? Well, we take immunosuppressants, right? So we take hydroxychloroquine, um, which is, you know, um, prescribed by your doctor. And then also, what's really, really important that I was in remission for a long time. So I did not have symptoms for years. And I became like, uh, health-a-phobic in a way. Um, I was so big on anti-inflammatory diets. I didn't do any processed foods. I did mostly fruits and vegetables. I ate a lot of fish. Omega-3s are so good for the inflammation. It's been proven, even if you go on sjogrens.org or if you Google up, you know, what helps bring down inflammation, it'll tell you. Immunosuppressants, but I did juicing. I would do turmeric juicing. I would do ginger shots. And I would drink them. It helps. But consistency that matters the most. So with anything, it's about doing the same routine. One, eating the right foods, right? It's not that it's going to erase the disease. It's going to simplify the symptoms. So eating an anti-inflammatory diet. Google it. Look it up. You're going to look at all the different things. Juicing, taking turmeric, taking Omega-3s. They're healthy. They, uh, turmeric helps bring down the inflammation. It helps with the symptoms. So it makes it less worse. Um, getting good sleep at night. Drinking enough water. You have to stay hydrated all day. Water, water, water, water. Staying away from diet sodas. Um, staying away from processed sugars. You're going to watch gluten. You're going to go on an anti-inflammatory diet. You have to watch what you eat. You have to make sure you're not stressed out all the time. You have to rest your body when you really need it. Because one thing that I have learned in this, I think almost eight years of having this chronic illness, is that if you do not get enough rest, if you're always stressed out, if you eat really bad, you're going to have severe flare ups and managing your weight. One thing my doctor brought up to me after I had my son, they said to me, what changed? Why are you flaring so much now? I said, well, I'm stressed out. I've gained weight. I've been going through stresses with work. I, you know, I became a mom. I'm catering to other people 24/7. That's what changed. Because the way I gained weight, because everything else, it's not helping. It's causing the inflammation to be worse. It's triggering it. And the symptoms are getting 10 times worse. So this is what has helped me on my journey. I urge everybody to look up these things. To look at the juicing, look at the supplements like, again, turmeric and fish oil. You know, obviously speak to your doctor. Have a conversation. I'm not a doctor. But this has helped me throughout my journey. And what I found is when I stay away from those things, it doesn't improve it. It does make it 10 times better. Exercising makes it better. Like, I've been trying to, I know people are like, I'm so exhausted. Granted, obviously, it's difficult because you're kind of trying to get energy, but you're also exhausted. So it's like, you have to be strict with yourself. You have to be strict with your mental health, not letting anybody stress you out. You need to make sure that you're eating really clean, no like fast food, staying away from certain things that don't make things more than buying them. Or if you do, having less ingredients. Like I don't eat Doritos. I don't have, um, I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. I eat chicken Caesar wraps. Or like, things that are just really healthy that don't have a lot of chemicals in them. So I hope this helps someone. If anybody has any suggestions to anyone, in the comments, bring up things that you've tried. Maybe what works for me doesn't work for you. But I figure at least me bringing it up can help someone. If anybody has any suggestions to anyone, in the comments, bring up things that you've tried. Maybe what works for me doesn't work for you. But I figure at least me bringing it up can help someone.
