Featured in the Lakeshore Weekly News

​It wasn’t until I was about 40 years old that I started to drink alcohol regularly. For the last six years I’ve enjoyed white wines or vodka sodas, which were my go-to drink choices.
Enjoying a glass or two or three of wine with friends, or my guy, during a beautiful meal or a lively conversation was one of my favorite things to do. I love everything about wine. How it’s made, how it tastes, how it smells.

There is just one big problem. I have two autoimmune diseases. One is called Grave’s disease, the other is Hashimoto’s. When my immune system jumps into action to fight an illness or combat stress, my autoimmune diseases create antibodies that attack my healthy thyroid, causing a host of issues. It is slowly killing my thyroid.

I’ve been dealing with the Grave’s disease for about 19 years. I was diagnosed with the Hashimoto’s a couple of years ago. Today there is no cure for an autoimmune disease. Traditional medical doctors can only treat symptoms.

I’ve learned to live with or manage most of my symptoms when my disease is acting up. Most people who know me have no idea. I pride myself on living as normal a life as possible. I’m able to do this because I manage my time, learned how to say no, rest when I need to and I don’t take on more than I can chew, most of the time.

Often I’m dealing with: Extreme fatigue, sometimes so bad that walking up the stairs is a feat, a rapid heartbeat which is puts way more wear and tear on my heart than need be, muscle and joint pain, puffy face, sensitivity to cold, memory loss. Thankfully, my friends and family are used to me repeating myself and forgetting their names as well as unexplained weight gain. I keep clothes in three different sizes, and my least favorite symptom is hair loss!

When you have an autoimmune disease such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, chrohn’s disease to name a few, anything that causes inflammation is the worst thing for you as inflammation is the partner in crime of an autoimmune disease.

Alcohol is incredibly inflammatory. I’ve been able to minimize the symptoms of my autoimmune disease by changing my diet to one that is an anti-inflammatory diet in nature. For me, that is eating paleo.

Minimizing stress, getting outside, getting good sleep and exercise are also other ways to minimize autoimmune disease symptoms. Plus, those are smart things to do for anyone.
Even doing all of the above, my hair started to fall out recently. I have a few bald spots. Bald spots, people! You can’t see them the way I wear my hair, but they are there.

During a visit to my doctor’s office we talked about how important it was that I be on an anti-inflammatory diet, which I was, except for my wine and vodka consumption. I needed to stop drinking alcohol because of the inflammation affects. So I did.

My 6-year love affair with wine and vodka ended. I’m not going to lie, I was bummed out! I’m with an amazing man who also quit drinking alcohol with me in solidarity and support. We’ve come to realize that for us the benefits of not drinking alcohol greatly outweigh our desire to drink it.

Quitting was not easy, and I don’t expect it to be without a few road bumps. After a few months I could have a glass of wine once in a while. The thing is, I’m not a once-in-a-while drinker, so my partner and I have decided that we are just done drinking alcohol.

I also started a hair thickening treatment that is non-toxic and chemical free, which I found at Beauty Ecology Organic Salon in Wayzata. My bald spots now have sprouts of hair growing.
Since I quit alcohol, I’ve been able to string together several days of being symptom-free. My skin looks amazing, and I’m sleeping better than I have in years. I still love wine, but I love myself more, not to mention having hair.
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I’m still enjoying beautiful meals and lively conversations, just with sparkling water instead of wine.