Outgrowing AIP When You Have Autoimmunity with Alison Marras, NTP

This week on The Less Stressed Life, Alison Marras, NTP joins me to share her story of putting Hashimoto’s, PCOS, and IBS into remission—twice. After years of being dismissed by doctors, Alison discovered the power of nutrition, root-cause healing, and nervous system support. While the Autoimmune Paleo (AIP) diet helped her in the short term, Alison learned that restrictive eating wasn’t the end goal—addressing gut health, environment, and emotional resilience was.

In this episode, we explore what it really takes to move beyond elimination diets, how mold exposure triggered her second Hashimoto’s flare, and why nervous system health is as important as diet in healing autoimmunity.

If you’ve ever felt stuck on the elimination diet rollercoaster, worried about food sensitivities, or wondered how to actually achieve lasting remission, this conversation will help you see what’s possible.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Why AIP can be a helpful tool—but not a long-term solution
• Alison’s journey through misdiagnosis, Hashimoto’s, and finding the right support
• How mold exposure triggered her second autoimmune flare
• The critical role of the nervous system in calming immune reactivity
• Practical steps to reintroduce foods and build resilience with autoimmunity

---

---

ABOUT GUEST:
Alison Marras, NTP, is a holistic nutritionist, gut health expert, and author of The Paleo Gut Healing Cookbook. After overcoming Hashimoto’s, PCOS, and IBS herself, she now helps women heal digestive symptoms without restrictive elimination diets. Through her In Tune Method, Alison empowers clients to reintroduce foods, reduce inflammation, and create lasting gut health with more ease and joy. 

WHERE TO FIND:
Website: https://foodbymars.com/ 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foodbymars/

WHERE TO FIND CHRISTA:
Website: https://www.christabiegler.com/
Instagram: @anti.inflammatory.nutritionist
Podcast Instagram: @lessstressedlife
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lessstressedlife

NUTRITION PHILOSOPHY OF LESS STRESSED LIFE:
🍽️ Over restriction is dead
🥑 Whole food is soul food and fed is best
🔄 Sustainable, synergistic nutrition is in (the opposite of whack-a-mole supplementation & supplement graveyards)
🤝 You don’t have to figure it out alone
❤️ Do your best and leave the rest

SPONSOR:
Thanks to Jigsaw Health for sponsoring this episode! Looking for a clean, tasty way to stay hydrated this summer? Their Electrolyte Supreme is a go-to for energy, minerals, and daily hydration support. Use code LESSSTRESSED10 at JigsawHealth.com for 10% off—unlimited use!

---

---

TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Alison Marras, NTP: it is so short term and it's gotta be. In conjunction with looking at root cause issues of why do I have food sensitivities to begin with? Why do I have so much inflammation? Why do I have, quote unquote, leaky gut?

[00:00:13] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: I'm your host, Christa Biegler, and I'm going to guess we have at least one thing in common that we're both in pursuit of a less stressed life. On the show, I'll be interviewing experts and sharing clinical pearls from my years of practice to support high performing health savvy women in pursuit of abundance and a less stressed life.

One of my beliefs is that we always have options for getting the results we want. So let's see what's out there together.

​ Today on the less stress left, I have Allison Marras, who is a holistic nutritionist and the published author of the Paleo Gut Healing Cookbook and a gut health expert specializing in autoimmune disease and food sensitivities after putting her own Hashimoto's. PCOS and IBS into remission. She made it her mission to help other women heal chronic digestive symptoms without restrictive elimination diets.

So we are kindred spirits. Allison and I as the creator of the Intune Method, she's guided hundreds of clients to reintroduce foods with confidence, to reduce inflammation and get off the elimination diet rollercoaster for good. So welcome to the show, Allison. 

[00:01:49] Alison Marras, NTP: Thanks for having me. 

[00:01:50] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Yeah, I cannot remember how we got connected, but the world is small and we do.

We just have some things in common, so sometimes the world intersect us, but what we don't have in common. What I love is the history of Hashimoto's and so your, all of our health experiences shape how we practice later. And we both, we know we all start in one place and kind of evolve with time.

And so I'd love to hear how your story started with Hashimoto's. Was that kind of the first thing? 'cause you talk about overcoming PCOS and Hashimoto's, but I know you talk mostly about Hashimoto's and in fact you put it into remission twice. So I'd love for you to tell us, just open up with that story a little bit.

[00:02:29] Alison Marras, NTP: Thank you. Yeah. Exactly right where we're these wounded healers and we're coming to this because we've had to figure it out for ourselves. I would say the PCOS and IBS was this lifelong thing, but I just thought, oh, it's my genes. There's nothing I can do about it. My mom and all the women in my family would have very painful periods, and I was just I feel like indoctrinated into the idea of this is the sweetest for us, yeah. Oh and then the real kind of catalyst, I went on the birth control pill when I was 18. 'cause that was all they could tell me to do because the pain was so horrific and I couldn't miss days every month of college. So I remember just like thinking to myself, if I'm gonna go to college and I'm not gonna flunk, I'm gonna need to be there.

They put me on the pill and I was on it for 10 years, which was great. I felt like it was on a, I was on a vacation. But it was really just. A bandaid for what was really going on. And so once I'd gotten married in like 2012, came off the pill about a year later. 'cause we're like, all right, like maybe we'll have kids one day.

Let's just get off this. And that's when it all just hit the fan. I couldn't normalize things anymore. My hair was falling out and clumps. That was really the big driver for me is that. I was like going bald in my mid twenties and I was not okay with that. And I was just being tossed around from every, endocrinologist, even in NYU and Columbia and all these great rec places that I was on wait list for.

They're like, no, you're fine. It's fine. Maybe just go back on the pill. I don't know, like these are the real appointments I was having. And I was like, okay, no one's coming to save me. I'm gonna have to figure this out myself. And that's really what was the catalyst I had already been starting to.

Eat better and be, just keep going with that. 'cause I knew that had to be important. But then that's really when I started going back to school and getting educated on it and practicing a lot more things, going to functional medicine and really getting a proper diagnosis of Hashimoto's.

And that's what happened. And to your point about like we start practicing somewhere, it's at that time, a IP, the a IP diet. Was something that was making a big difference for me, partially because I was still new to eating much better. I was like a takeout queen. I'd be eating at restaurants, all the things all the time.

And even though I thought I was eating well, 'cause I'd have an occasional smoothie and salad. It was not cutting it. And so a IP made a difference for me because I was cooking from home. Lots of whole foods reducing inflammatory foods, going gluten free. And that was exciting at first. And so that was helping me along the journey, reduce the TPO antibodies and stuff like that.

But ultimately so many other things had to come into play to really push me over the edge, that finish line of remission. And that's what I've seen in terms of practicing for so many years on myself and on my clients, that we don't necessarily need a IP to get into remission. We don't need to go this restrictive.

And what's really important are some other key fundamental things.

[00:05:23] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Yeah, we have really quite similar stories, but they came from different places. So I wanna zoom in. There was many sub stories in your initial story. In fact, what year would you say you started? gonna ask you this one first and lemme go back a little bit more.

What year do you think you started adjusting your diet? In general, I'm just wondering 'cause there was almost like a decade or two or whatever where it was more popular. 

[00:05:44] Alison Marras, NTP: Yes. I would say 2018 was the big a IP year probably. Cool. 'Cause I can remember going to like my school conference and being a IP like, like critical travel right. Moments. I can remember being like, oh God, what can I. 

[00:06:02] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Yeah. Yeah. The other pe there's, there are so many good, relatable stories in here. The other one that I think is interesting is you were going to these really big, renowned institutions, and they were like, you're gonna be fine.

It is what it is. And I have seen that there is a time and place for that. And then there's also really a time and place for someone I've just seen this indifference. Disciplines, physical therapy and other things. Even my husband needed a second opinion on kind of this hand surgery that was recommended to him.

And we ended up going to like a larger private practice more so than the standard hospital just because you get lost a little bit, as in number sometimes, unfortunately. And so there can be that. So my real question here is who actually checked? The other piece is Hashimoto's is a little different.

Then having just straight up slow thyroid or hypothyroid. And so someone may test your thyroid and test your TSH which is not even a thyroid hormone. And they may test a T four, but how many doctors did it take to even get thyroid testing and then to test your antibodies, which would've triggered a Hashimoto's diagnosis?

[00:07:11] Alison Marras, NTP: Okay, good question. I dunno how many doctors, but it took three years. Okay. 

[00:07:16] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Yeah. That's tough. 

[00:07:17] Alison Marras, NTP: Yeah, it was gynecologist after gynecologist. Like I would go in and they, those were the ones especially, were like, just go on the pill. I don't know if that's what caused the loss. And I'm like, but I got off so that I could eventually get pregnant.

Why would I go back on? And 

[00:07:28] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: this is 

[00:07:28] Alison Marras, NTP: a problem, like, why are we looking at the problem? And then I remember even my mom was like, this sounds like the thyroid. Like you gotta go to an endocrinologist. Not even a physician told me to do that. Not even a primary care, so I wasn't really referred.

I was just like, okay, I need to seek this out. And I went to two different ones and I remember being on a waiting list, and I remember one just looking at me up and down and being like, you don't have a thyroid problem. You're not fat. That's what he did. And I was like, you don't know my body. You don't know me from a hole in the wall.

Like how dare you? You don't know. I was 10 pounds heavier than I normally was, and I was losing all my hair and I was 26. And I remember one doctor telling me, oh, you're probably stressed. I'm like, yeah, I'm stressed. I'm losing all my hair, and no one can tell me why. You're telling me you were 

[00:08:14] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: talking to a bald doctor.

[00:08:16] Alison Marras, NTP: Look, I legit, he was, I legit. He's it's not some battle over here. So I'm just like, you know what is going on, right? So yes. And then what it finally took was going to a naturopath and then I also went to a functional doctor after that. And so the naturopath, to your point, tested firstly a full thyroid panel.

'cause like you said, the endocrinologist will just test TTSH and T four maybe. Didn't even test T three back then. And the other key thing with Western Medicine Labs versus functional medicine labs is that the reference range is. Different. Functional medicine, we're looking for optimal markers.

For me to be losing all my hair. I obviously was not in an optimal range, but I was in this like subclinical hypothyroidism state, and I remember him telling me, come back in six months maybe then I can give you Synthroid. I'm like. 

[00:09:06] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Woof. It was wild. I'm Marina. I'm really, I'm so sorry that it took that long.

It must've been really challenging and really hard and for I think there's a lot to say here. And so maybe we'll back up and set the stage that there is, getting blood work done and being diagnosed as hypothyroid. And this is where I feel like whenever I bring up the word thyroid, I always have to give a lot of context because I feel that what I personally see more in practice is people before they are maybe diagnosed.

Hopefully it's almost easier that way before blood labs shift or. In general, I need to provide context because people may say, oh, I've had my thyroid tested. I'm like, oh, that's a whole half hour conversation.

[00:09:46] Alison Marras, NTP: You're like, let me see it.

[00:09:47] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Yeah, let me see it. But there's being, there is probably, kind of levels.

There's having thyroid symptoms, which. Broad. And so some of them might be hair loss. The big ones might be like hair loss and feeling cold and maybe tired, but they might be other things as well. Did you have those others? Were you feeling tired? Did you feel cold or not so much? 

[00:10:06] Alison Marras, NTP: Yes, I could fall asleep at 9:00 PM and no one could get, I remember falling asleep at a concert.

No one could keep me awake. Like I just, again, it's like you don't know any other way. So I'm like, that's me.

[00:10:16] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Normal. Yeah, exactly.

[00:10:17] Alison Marras, NTP: I'm not tired all the time.

[00:10:18] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: I'm a 

fun time. I'm a fun time

[00:10:21] Alison Marras, NTP: as long as I'm home by 8:30 PM

[00:10:23] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Yeah. Yeah. You know the first thing is what I would want. So you've got the, before it even shows up on labs, sometimes you have these symptoms.

There's others, slow motility, dry hair, dry skin, et cetera. So many of those. So I think that anytime you're seeing those symptoms, you can start to support with nutrients, different things. And then there is whether the blood labs are off, whether you have slow thyroid, which I think is, I don't know the stats, but more common than hyperthyroid.

And then we have what you had, which was autoimmune thyroid. And that is. One of my favorites because now the gut gets involved in general, but back in 2018. I don't know what you were doing, but you were getting educated on some things and there's a lot of information on the internet, and I'm not saying it's bad.

It doesn't hurt, it's not a bad thing to change your diet and see what happens. And you. Thrived on that kind of initially, and like to the point where you had a food blog, you had a cookbook about this, and so you're pretty married to it. And similarly I'm a dietician, so I'm coming from a food background and so I started people with food sensitivity stuff and.

Because I felt like it felt natural to change your diet. Diet,

[00:11:26] Alison Marras, NTP: and you want to get 

them relief. Immediate relief, and you have to eat three times a day and it's like when you have no idea what to eat and you're reacting from everything, it is obviously an immediate issue to solve, but I'm sure, 'cause I, I've listened to so much of your stuff too.

I think we both came to a similar line in the sand where it's not without the root cause work. It's just another bandaid to 

[00:11:49] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: yeah. And I wanna understand because the reason I asked about the context of the timeline was it wasn't that long ago, but it was a long time ago.

And so people may not even know what a IP is or was. And I'd love to hear a little bit about how that went for you when you went on a IP and what were the results? I think. Lots of reasons people have great success with a IP. So if you don't mind, tell us a little bit about a IP and your personal experience, because here's where we are with your timeline.

First. Go off pill after 10 years, hair is falling out. Your mom recommends seeing an endocrinologist. You finally get some thyroid testing, which I don't know, it sounds like maybe you didn't even get Hashimoto's diagnosed until you saw a naturopath. Exactly. 

[00:12:30] Alison Marras, NTP: Yep. 

[00:12:30] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: And you're in New York, which I think makes labs even more interesting typically.

And then, so you saw this naturopath and so maybe the recommendation there was to change diet, but I'm just curious what happened between the diagnosis of Hashimoto's and then you starting to change your diet and kind of the results that you saw at that time that kind of formed where you were in practice and business online for a little while.

I'm just curious how that evolved for you. Yeah. 'cause that's the case for many people is like they see some success. 

[00:12:59] Alison Marras, NTP: Absolutely. And because it is a decent short term tool to your point. And we're never gonna argue eating better food and Whole Foods. Like we're never gonna argue that.

It's more so when it gets to be too restrictive and then we know that impacts the gut. We've got lack of bi microbiome diversity, all these other things, and then we don't wanna bring stress into feeding ourselves every day because that's a whole nervous system issue. So those are some of the things that.

I started dealing with after a while, but to rewind, when I had finally been diagnosed, I was already gluten-free and playing with dairy free. 'cause I was just. Reading into a lot of different things and learning. I was going back to nutrition school, so I was learning about obviously just getting rid of some anti-inflammatory or getting rid of inflammatory foods and things like that.

So I was on the journey. I was doing more home cooked meals. I wasn't drinking alcohol so much anymore. I was really trying to be mindful. I remember I was like seed cycling, like I was just trying anything right. That was out there. I'm sure a lot of your listeners can relate to just being like, what's wrong with me?

Google Chat GPT nowadays, right? Figure out what to do. So I was there, and then I feel like finally getting the autoimmune diagnosis. First of all, I went on thyroid medication. I went on natural desiccated thyroid, so I got a bit of T three and a bit of T four, and that was huge. It did take a while to find my proper dosage, just so everyone knows that like even if you're on Synthroid, if you were just put on one starter dose and never looked at again, 'cause I see that a ton with people.

No, we have to keep checking the labs and make sure it's actually working for you. So I did. Start thyroid medication and that did especially help when it finally kicked in after, maybe a few months. And the, and for things like energy and hair and all those things. And then moving on to diet.

I felt like I finally had some guidance now and structure of okay, I legit have an autoimmune disease. I'd like to not get any more, so I'm gonna try a IP 'cause that's the thing. That's the thing for autoimmune. And I think people are honestly still finding that when they're going to medicine, doctors, naturopaths, it's like, cool, go on a IP.

And so that's when I went all in on like changing my gluten-free blog to more of a paleo a IP blog because that's what I was trying to figure out how to cook and how to make it taste good and how to have foods that I really missed. And that's what I really wanted to share with everybody, which I'm so glad that I did because I can make it hopefully a little more tolerable for people.

But I just want everyone to know that it is so short term and it's gotta be. In conjunction with looking at root cause issues of why do I have food sensitivities to begin with? Why do I have so much inflammation? Why do I have, quote unquote, leaky gut? All these things. And so that's where I think working, obviously, with a practitioner is going to help with that.

And so luckily that's what I was doing, working with a naturopath, the functional medicine doctor, finding out I had sibo, I had parasites, I had all these problems that led me down these, new corridors, so to speak. Then I just had to figure out how to bring it all together,

[00:16:01] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: yeah. So I wonder how long you were on a IP the first time you went on it in 2018 and because I wanna eventually jump to the second remission of Hashimoto's because it's a little different, and it's one of the reasons that I think people succeed with a IP. But one thing to reiterate in different words to what you're saying.

Is that when you go on something like autoimmune paleo, which is a paleo style diet without nightshades, so white potatoes, peppers, I'm just like, off the top of my head, it's been a minute. Cayenne pepper, eggs, handful, 

nuts. Yeah, it's a whole bunch of stuff. It's like extra stuff on top of paleo. 

Yeah. All Whole Foods, and then what is meant to happen is that you're supposed to reintroduce foods and sometimes people reintroduce and they don't handle those foods well, et cetera, et cetera.

So I'm curious how long you were on a IP and then how often you had your thyroid antibodies rechecked, like at what point? Were you feeling wow, I am looking good 20 19, 20 20 before things shifted again. So how long was that first little journey?

[00:17:02] Alison Marras, NTP: Yeah, I would say so. Remember, it took me about three years to just get the diagnosis. So that was like the first leg of the journey. And then I would say it took about two years to fully get in remission. That first time I was taking the scenic route, I was flailing all around. I was killing parasites.

I was doing se o protocols, I was doing all these things. I did a IP for 90 days. Nice at first and only real time that I did it, like strictly. And it definitely helped with my TPO antibodies. Like I did see them go down. They weren't quite all the way in remission, but I did see them go down.

I really needed to take it all the way by killing, addressing the gut issues, the infection. Really looking at my stress, really looking at nervous system because I was highly anxious and stressed. All of my health issues than just living in New York City. I was in a different right at that time.

Stress and anxiety is the love language here. So I really had to realize that healing in the environment that made me sick. Was not gonna do it. 

[00:18:03] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: That's such a good point, right? Yeah. It's like this is the environment that created this, so I need to shift in some way. And I wanna talk, certainly I will I will transition into talking more about some of those issues and nervous system issues that come from long-term food restriction.

But I wanna hear about the second time that Hashimoto's flared for you. Was that after you had a baby? Was there a, did you move to a different hou? You tell us about, I know you had mentioned in your. Info that you sent me that you had a mold exposure, which is just, I see a lot of, I tend not to say this.

I think it's a beautiful, we can have this safe conversation around molds here. I think it's really common. It doesn't mean you have to go on. A really terrible Google rabbit hole, but I think that autoimmune paleo removes a lot of moldy foods from the diet, and so people feel really good on autoimmune paleo when they're dealing with mold stuff.

And so I'm just curious where that sort of came in and showed up for you when you had this second flare. What did this, I think, second flare of Hashimoto's look like for you? 

[00:19:03] Alison Marras, NTP: So basically after I got into remission the first time, a couple months later, I got pregnant with my first daughter, and that was, if you remember my story, it was your goal.

The goal. Like the whole, yeah, whole thing. That kind of started it. So it was nice. I quit my former job and got pregnant. How many stories did we hear like that? I just finally got outta that stress and anxiety and I felt finally good with the body. So that was my first born, my daughter who's just turned six.

And more recently, so I guess it would be about three and a half years ago is probably when I had the second flare. And I knew it. I knew it had to be, the house had changed. We moved into a new house after having my daughter. We were in the house a lot because of 2020. 

And I remember my doctor even saying are you going on vacation anytime soon?

Like, why don't we test it? Just see if you feel any better, like away from the house. 'cause I was like, I'm still eating really well. Like paleo. Like I was still nightshade for, even though I was off a IPI was still a little sensitive to certain things that didn't like, quite make its way back.

And I'm like, I'm still eating really well. Like I don't feel like that's what it is. And so I went away for a week I remember, and I felt a lot better. It was little thing, it was hives. I started noticing hair loss again. It was like these little things. And of course my antibodies were shooting up very quickly.

Even higher than the first time that they were, so I was like, oh no, this is not cute. So at least I knew who to reach out to this time I didn't lose so much time and energy, scrambling. And so we did a urine analysis and it came back with okra, toin a, which is real common. We see this a lot for sure.

Now my house is fairly new. It's 22 years old. It's nothing like insane. I don't think I have any ghosts in here or anything like that. It's nothing crazy, but. To your point, it is extremely common. Yeah. Could be a humid Yeah. I'm in a humid east coast state. We've lived with mold forever as humans.

But we are much more inside than ever. And so I started going down that rabbit hole when we got tested and so tested the house and honestly, nothing huge came up. It was like minor. Stuff. It was still, I still had a price tag to fix. But it wasn't anything insane. It wasn't like these terrible stories you hear about like black mold and have to get rid of the whole thing or move or anything.

[00:21:25] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: I think this 

is the more common scenario though, when it's actually mild to moderate, because when it's severe. The result is quite severe. Like you're,

[00:21:32] Alison Marras, NTP: and the whole 

family is probably 

[00:21:34] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Exactly. And you can be quite unstable when it's severe. And that's why it gets discredited and it's a little bit of a dance.

Because it's gonna take us back to nervous system stuff. Something interesting for me is I've seen. When you have used up more resources, whether you just had a baby, you had a couple months of stress, you're gonna become less resilient to what's in the environment because that stress is gonna use up nutrients.

And the nutrients are all the little workers at your systems that help take off the trash, right? And so when you. Reduce that in some way, which by the way, over restriction or not digesting your food or all of those things could contribute to it. So it's just like this beautiful, perfect storm.

It can allow that to become a bigger issue. And then of course, some of us may not process that out as well. And so you'll see very commonly that you might have a spouse or someone that you live with and they may not have problems like you do. So all of that creates just some challenges.

So I just wanna share those, these are. So common challenges and then what I think the biggest enemy is? Like our response to it, right? Our nervous system response of course. 'cause that makes everything worse. Anytime, like stress goes up the, it's hard not to, but I always say, can we try to take the most chill approach to this?

And for me it's just understanding these pieces. And so for you. Like our entire stories are the first time you're doing anything, it's harder, but it be was probably a little bit easier. It was easier for you to get help or get the right help or right resources. 'cause you'd already been in that realm for a little bit.

But like you said, so to your point, it wasn't horrific, but it came with this price tag. So then what happened? 

[00:23:08] Alison Marras, NTP: Yeah. And I remember talking to my friend that I was telling you about Emily Bert who was like a mold expert and he was freaking me out a lot. It was like, you hear a lot of things, you go down these rabbit holes of relocate and what if your kids get it?

And just so many things. And I remember just coming to a point where I'm like, oh, there it is again. I'm not feeling safe in my body and now in my home. I, it was to the point that I'd be working in my office and I felt freaked out. Like I just didn't know what was going on.

And I remember just being on a walk and I'm like, this is a crock of SHID. I'm not gonna go down this. Thing anymore. Yeah. I'm going to approach this as levelheaded as possible, which you cannot do if you are stuck in fight or flight. You're just in reactive. 

[00:23:54] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: It blocks logic.

Completely. 

[00:23:56] Alison Marras, NTP: Totally. And blocks, blocks any kind of creativity like anything like that you can access. So I just started realizing I've been here before where I didn't feel safe in my body because you're communicated that autoimmunity is your body attacking itself, which it's not.

And so when I started seeing that happening again, I'm like, no, stop right here. I was arguing with my husband, he didn't want to, he was like, what are we gonna do? Spend all this money and relocate. It was just causing so much friction and stress.

[00:24:22] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Yeah, so relatable,

[00:24:24] Alison Marras, NTP: right? That I was finally like, okay, we have the information on where the hotspots or suspected hotspots are.

I'm telling you it was really mild, but like enough to be causing a problem for me. And I was like, okay, we know it was in the AC and the vents. 

[00:24:40] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Yeah. 

Super common.

[00:24:41] Alison Marras, NTP: Let's get the vents clean. Yep. I was like, let's get the vents cleaned. I was a new homeowner. I didn't know how often to even do that or when it had last been.

Yeah. Now I know I wanna do that year later every year. Yeah. It's not even expensive. So I was like, okay, vents get cleaned. We're gonna do a deep clean in the house. We're going to replace some of the things like the FRI there was under the refrigerator, so we swapped that out and did the cleaning and little things like that.

And I knew we'd be due for a new AC within the next year and that was already going to be, that was the biggest nice price tag. 'Cause we have two, I don't know what you would call 'em, like units outside? Yeah. And so that's a whole thing. So within a year most of it was taken up, but I couldn't do it all at once.

Yeah. 

And I just told myself, my body is resilient. My body can do this. I'm gonna up the detox. So I definitely did a detox protocol like charcoal. 

The whole thing. Glutathione, all the things which really helped for sure. I got more air doctors. I thought I had enough, but I got even more so HEPA filters ran them more often.

I just, I really decided to. Clean up the environment and get my nervous system in a good place. And that did it. I didn't even, I didn't have to wait that full year for all the right sex to be on the list at all. It just took a little bit of momentum. My body could handle the rest. 

[00:25:58] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: I think that's like a beautiful story is we actually don't need perfection.

We just need to reduce the stress on our body, which comes. Partly largely from ourselves. So even though unfortunately you were having this environmental exposure that was fla, flaring those antibodies, you really took back control even though you started in that spiral. And I will say to any listeners, we have some, you can always look for Emily's name and you can search the podcast name and Emily Ky Bird's name.

And I know we have one. The most recent one we did with her, it was so good. She was such a good bridge for that kind of because I know she's had five homes that she is worked through. She's had every single time and no one's ever found it except for her. And so it's just, there's a lot of really good pearls in that episode on finding it.

And for me, I just say let us settle down and just be as strategic as possible. And that takes me to, there are many things that communicate. A lack of safety to the immune system. And then when the immune system is feeling like not safe, it's gonna be hypervigilant and it's gonna react in multiple ways, including food sensitivities.

So in the case of Allison's story, literally, even though she was doing some other physiological things to support her body that were probably needed to clean up the mycotoxins remove them more, which by the way, like that can be. Sometimes that works, sometimes that easy. Sometimes it backfires depending on what the symptoms are, depending what's going on.

And then the other piece was like, because she. Attended to her nervous system, she actually calmed the symptoms a lot. And so I will say the nervous system influence on the immune system is as much or more as the physical influences. For me, that's been such a big thing for with and for clients is if we can get your nervous system in a steady place or help you stay out of these spirals and these things very early on, then it's going to allow for healing to take place a little bit more easily.

And I know you talk about that a lot. 

[00:28:00] Alison Marras, NTP: A hundred percent and I wanna share something. 'cause if you are dealing with a mole journey or suspected and all these things, I wanna also share an aha moment that I had the silliest one, but it was an aha moment that I had that switched me back into safety.

[00:28:15] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: It is hot weather season and there is probably no better time than now to make electrolytes part of your daily routine. Electrolytes help you make energy and help get hydration into the cell so you aren't just peeing out what you put in. I've been drinking electrolytes for at least five years and I'm always looking for a great tasting, high quality powder just to change up the flavors.

This summer, I'm doing a lot of electrolyte Supreme from Jigsaw. It's got a great complimentary vitamin and mineral profile beyond the classic electrolyte minerals of potassium, sodium, and magnesium without any sugar or artificial colors. It tastes great and it's probably my go-to for my kids', especially the lemon lime flavor as a hydrating lemonade for summer.

You can get 10% off every single [email protected] with the code less stressed, 10 that's less stressed, 10 to take 10% off of all of jigsaw's incredible products, from electrolytes, supreme to potassium and adrenal cocktails to cod liver oil and beyond. So go get yourself now and start hydrating.

[00:29:23] Alison Marras, NTP: I was reading this Dr.

Seuss book, two of my daughter. Okay. They have this whole library and it's all about these different topics and it's like Dr. Seuss based, and it was about all about the rainforest. Is the book all about the rainforest and they're teaching you about all the animals and you're learning about the rainforest.

And as I'm reading it, I'm like, wow, this is a moldy place. Few minutes, it's wet, it's damp, it's never, ever dry. And on one of the last pages oh yeah, and humans live here. And I'm like, huh, isn't that interesting? Humans are living in mold. And I just remember thinking like we've all been. W, we've always lived with mold.

What is the con? And it brought it back to me for the idea of the bucket theory. Like how full is my bucket? And so is this the thing that's setting it off? To your point, I was in postpartum. 2020 had just happened, like we were locked up in house.

[00:30:18] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: It wasn't the only thing.

[00:30:19] Alison Marras, NTP: It wasn't the only thing, right?

It was very much a buildup to that. And then on top of it, yes, we were in the house too much. Aren't we all inside too much? As, as people, like we don't get just like fresh air enough. And so all these little things are hitting me as I'm just like on a walk in the morning. That's when I had my moment of screw this.

What am I freaking out over? So that's really what hit. And then I remember a colleague of mine was like, why don't you reach out to this doctor? He's homeopathic, I think a do in New York City. And I'd heard his name several times, Krista. So it was like synchronicity that I'm like, yeah. It's time. I do talk to this man. And I can't, I'll get it to you after the show. I'll double check 'cause I wanna make sure I like quote him or whatever. But Dr. Salza, there it is. There it came to me. And genius, wonderful guy. I spoke to him on a Zoom and I was telling him about the mold and I'm like, look, I'm already doing a protocol from my naturopath.

I did this. I'm wondering if homeopathy can help me with like drainage at all. I was just going through some of these little avenues and I told him the whole Rainforest story and he's Allison, I used to study there. He's can I tell you something about those people?

They're thriving. How is it that they can live with it? But we're spending $200,000 to renovate like an apartment. So what? So they could come back in a few months? 'cause that was my thing too. I'm like, how do I know this isn't gonna happen in a year? I can do all these things and then couldn't a leak start up again?

Where am I building my resilience in my body? Where am I supporting my detoxification pathways every single day? The drainage pathways, my resilience, my nervous system to your point, right? Reducing the load in my bucket. Resilience first and then absolutely take care of the environment. But within reason, I'm not gonna sell my house because of this.

That's crazy. So I just wanted to share that because that gave me extra peace and confirmation. And he said the same thing. He was like, some people are taking this a little too far, is what my opinion is. And it's really my opinion that. You're doing a great thing. Your protocols, what you're doing by cleaning it up.

I'm sure. Give it a month or two and you'll be fine. And I was, and that, I just wanna reiterate this again, of you give your body enough of what it needs and it will take the baton usually, right? Like already healing. I told one of my clients like this, who's dealing with a mold protocol, she was like, sometimes I forget when to do the binders.

I'm setting alarms. I'm so busy I'm so stressed out, I need to heal. I'm like, babe. The supplements are helping, but your body is still doing work to heal and detox. 

Let's reduce your stress right now over, oh my God. I took it 30 minutes later than I was supposed to. Yeah. So that's my 2 cents.

[00:33:08] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Yeah, that's always, I think real stories are always the most fun, which is why I really zoomed in to real stories, relatable stories, right? Because sometimes we see ourselves in tidbits of that story, and I think the rainforest story reminds me it's different, right? Because there's a lot more open air, we're getting sun, we're eating seasonally, maybe like there's so many different details there. Active. Yeah, it's that same conversation people have about why do I feel so good in Europe, but sometimes not in the US And I like to just participate and get curious right, about why those things happen. Because personally I think that the glyphosate wheat conversation is absolutely incorrect because glyphosates on everything, actually weed is not spread with glyphosate.

So like that very lazy regurgitated excuse is not cutting it for me. I'm like, no it's more, it's, it might be partly, it's certainly food as well, but it's other things also. And it's yeah, we just because there is a lot there as well. There is a lot of toxic burden there as well, but there's also a lot of joy, right?

I always think this is hilarious. Every time I've gone to Europe, I'm like, you guys stay up all night and drink profusely and smoke, but you're having so much fun. You're having so much fun, you're enjoying your life. So anyway, I'm not. Suggesting I've got an answer in a nutshell. I just like to be curious about it.

Oh, that's interesting. What is happening here or there. 

[00:34:28] Alison Marras, NTP: You know what's funny to borrow from our European friends we had. Relatives, my husband's Greek, but he has some friends that also family that also lives in Germany. And they came that same summer, like after I started going through this, they came and I got into talking about it with them a little bit.

And they were like you know what we find interesting about America? We've been here a few weeks. You guys don't open your windows. And I'm like, what do you mean? And he's in Germany, like that's a. It just acquired, even if you went to an Airbnb in Germany, it says like on your little pamphlet or whatever, you have to open your window in the early morning and ear and end of the night, and I get it right now. If it's really humid, if you're in a city and it's really taught, I know that not every place is perfect for this. But that idea of drying up the place, airing it out, is a big thing that they do in a lot of other countries and not the us.

So to your point about the people in the rainforest, it's yeah, their lifestyle is totally different. 

[00:35:22] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Oh yeah. I've had three exchange students and our ex last exchange student who is Spanish, she had a sinus thing. And it's funny, it's interesting. She's it's totally the air conditioning because most Europeans believe that the air conditioning is is how you get sick.

And and they are usually the HVAC unit is like one of the first places to check, or if you're gonna have an air test that's positive, it probably is in the hvac, and that's the thing, it's that's why testing is so frustrating for people is it's it's not always in the air.

Sometimes that's somewhere else. Maybe eventually getting in there, but not enough to be registering there. And so anyway I think you're totally right. It was funny 'cause we were there in December and January and we were skiing and like the window was open the entire time, middle of December, January, which I mean, we wouldn't do necessarily, but I think.

Honestly, even for me, I think it's a beautiful, I think it's a beautiful option. I know like in some of the Nordic countries that's, I, there's a name for it before they go to bed, they like cool down the room. 'Cause that

[00:36:16] Alison Marras, NTP: I've seen that.

[00:36:17] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Yeah. 

[00:36:19] Alison Marras, NTP: They also say that babies sleep better that way.

You make it really cold and fresh and crisp and then, you put a little, he like under the blanket.

[00:36:26] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: I love ancient 

wisdom. I think it's fascinating and I love how like it overlaps, like different cultures have these different little. Things and then they over overlap, like their success leaves clues.

And speaking of success, leaving clues, I want to ask you, if you were talking to a woman with Hashimoto's, what is something that you wish ha, those with Hashimoto's food sensitivities or maybe Hashimoto's would hear sooner in their journey? Because for you it took at least three years to even get diagnosed.

[00:36:56] Alison Marras, NTP: I think if you're already diagnosed with Hashimoto's, it's don't go down that rabbit hole. You do need support and that's okay. 'cause I see a lot of high achieving type A perfectionistic people with Hashimoto's. I don't think that's a coincidence either. We get into a whole other discussion on that. And

absolutely. So we've already got our good labs. We have a strong understanding. And then the second thing is like this is not quite just a thyroid issue as much as it's the gut immune issue. So you're gonna get a lot of bang for your buck right there. Go there deep, absolutely, let's eat well. But it's not that a IP is.

Acquired by any means to go into remission. 'cause I'll talk to women like that all day long, but they're like, oh, I thought I had to, it's just, it feels like it's this next step and it's not. You can if you would really like to, but I know people have tried and they don't feel any better or any different.

So it's really about getting that bio individualized. Plan or support together with better understanding root cause issues, like maybe my root causes of Hashimoto's are not what yours are. Not everyone is the same. So that's something I would wanna impress upon 'cause I remember. Getting diagnosed, buying the Hashimoto's books, thinking I had every single thing that was in the book.

I didn't have low selenium. I didn't need to swallow it. There were like little things like that I'm just like, everyone's different. So that's one thing I really would want to oppress upon. And then the second thing is, this is here for you. This is here for you. It changed my whole life in the best way possible, and I.

I could have ended up 40 with a heart attack, like my mom if I hadn't had warning signs earlier. Yeah. So that's what I wanna say is take this signal from the body for what it is. And now let's embark on this journey in a really life giving way. In this I called it, what did I call it?

A plot twist. Like a really great plot twist in your life. Because it can, if you let it. 

[00:38:50] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Yeah. It's oh, what is this new issue gifting me? What am I getting to gain from this? That's actually how I'm feeling about, I think, hindsight's always 2020 and I think I've been through two physical healing journeys.

I feel like this year was an inner healing journey, and now I'm moving into another phase of life where like my hormones are slowing down. Perimenopause? Not yet. I'm just like. Bumping 40 in the butt, but I see it in the future.

[00:39:18] Alison Marras, NTP: I'm with you, girl.

[00:39:19] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Yeah, I see it in the future and I'm like, oh, cool.

Something new to learn. I get to learn a whole new set of things about what my body's doing. The old me who was a little more, my nervous system was not in as good of shape, right? Would've not looked at it that way, but kinda that's kinda the beauty of working with humans is as you care for yourself and as you start to reflect back a more positive I would say like one of the most transformative things for me in practice has been integrating more nervous system modalities just because.

I get to see healing hap I get to see everything calming down faster and I am eternally grateful for that work. It's been hard to add that 'cause it's not natural for us, right? Like we don't think. I didn't come from that background, yeah. And so I had to arrive at it later. And so what's been just so beautiful is wow.

As humans, we actually have a ton of similarities and we all need this nervous system work and support. So anyway off on tangents, but just, embracing gratitude around it, which sounds really. Cheeky sometimes when you're past it, but it's like the whole point of the podcast is really empowerment, right?

To help people resonate with stories and to help them see themselves in your story and realize oh, there's options and there's all of these things and these tools and opportunities to correct this, right? But we're not necessarily trying to fit a circular peg into a square hole. We're not trying to force it to happen as fast as possible.

But that doesn't mean you should be on a IP for three years without reintroducing foods, right? And reducing and challenging, creating a new set of issues where we've lost trust with our body and reduced nutrients even more, et cetera, et cetera. So much there. Yeah. We could cover. Allison, where can people find you online?

[00:41:00] Alison Marras, NTP: Yes. Food by Mars is my handle on Instagram. Come chat with me there. And I also have my website with lots of recipes, food by mars.com and those are the places I mainly hang out. 

[00:41:12] Christa Biegler, RD, LN: Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your remission stories of Hashimoto's. I hope it is very helpful to our listeners.

[00:41:20] Alison Marras, NTP: Thanks for having me.