Episode 145 -Postpartum to Autoimmune : What You Need To Know

This episode explores the link between postpartum experiences and autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto’s, emphasizing the importance of recognizing symptoms often overlooked by healthcare providers and advocates for proper testing.

CHECK ALOPECIA ANGEL OUT:

• Get your FREE downloads here
• Learn More About The Hair N Heal Program
• Johanna Dahlman on Healing Alopecia Naturally
• Why does Alopecia Persist? Why has it been months, years and more struggling with hairloss? 
• 2022 — State of Your Health and Hair Update
• The Million Dollar Question with Alopecia and How You Can Solve It Today!
• Learn How You Can Heal and Reverse Alopecia

Episode 145 - Postpartum to Autoimmune : What You Need To Know

Apply for the Hair & Heal Program Scholarship here:

https://forms.gle/ekXLyb2S5hs1xDrN6

Transcription: 

Johanna: I am so excited to have you, and today will be so marvelous for people to hear about your experience, your wealth of knowledge, and of course, all your expertise. Brandy, welcome to the show. Please let us know to all the listeners of how you got into health and wellness and what brought you into this field.

Brandy: Hi, thank you so much for having me. So I got into this field, very similar to a lot of people with my own health journey when I was a teenager, I was having a lot of random chest pain and I couldn't figure it out. And I ended up stumbling upon this idea of gluten free, which at the time was not a thing and I connected the dots that when I did not eat gluten, I didn't have this chest pain. That was my first experience of connecting how food can impact our health. And then as I got older, I just got more and more interested in studying nutrition. And then I started having my children, so then I pivoted my practice even more to really focus on women and moms who are in this phase of their life of having babies and growing their families.

Johanna: So tell me what has led you to present the other day or maybe not the other day, maybe seven years ago as well, on autoimmunity plus postpartum, because we were talking yesterday, for those of you don't know, we're also friends. And so we started talking and then all of a sudden we were sharing ideas and all of a sudden our ideas and our, our thinking just kind of cross paths. And then there was a synchronicity and I was like, Brandy, I need to have you now on the podcast to share your wealth of information, because this is exactly the podcast episode that I really wanted to bring home to you all, because I am seeing patterns of postpartum and the onset of let's say Hashimoto's, which happens in around 18-20% of people, of women, I should say. And then of course there's other, autoimmunity factors in there as well. But please, Brandy, share your experience because this synchronicity happens and I just get fired up. So thank you.

Brandy: Me too. So in my practice, I noticed this trend where when I was working with moms, this sentence kept coming up and the sentence was, I've never been the same ever since I had kids, like that was a triggering event. That was the catalyst for a lot of women to, when they start their feeling pretty poorly and actually about 40, almost 45 percent of women with an autoimmune condition, well of moms with an autoimmune condition report those symptoms starting within the first year after giving birth. And I'm really passionate and I also get really fired up about this because these are statistics that we have, right? That are in the literature, yet the standard of care is not looking out for this.And what I see a lot of times in my practice, moms within that first year after giving birth will experience things like fatigue and brain fog or their hair is falling out or they're extra emotional or they're feeling depressed and they talk to their doctor about it, but there's a lot of dismissing that's happening and a lot of stories of just being told that just welcome to motherhood, that's part of it and not getting support and not having a provider on their team that is going to dig deeper and figure out what is actually going on.

Johanna: That's incredible because there is always more stuff to happen. And as you, I had alopecia and what I really like to drive home is that the sooner you heal and reverse it and not just alopecia, but probably any autoimmune disease, and then when you have babies, then your. set up and poised for success so that none of those symptoms have to come back so that none of the alopecia has to come back and where you can even mitigate the postpartum hair loss and potentially even the other postpartum symptoms that may be lurking there as well. Because I feel like, you the postpartum situation is going to look so different for everybody. I mean, I had my kid during Covid and that was just, you know another world but at the same time you can exit out succeeding and above and ahead of everyone else. And of course, ahead of where you actually came from.

So in my case, I had alopecia, healed myself, got pregnant, had postpartum, but nothing happened postpartum, if that makes sense. There was no extra alopecia. There was no extra antibodies of anything else. And I was good to go. I will say that postpartum depression did come in for like a 24 hour situation and I got out of it real quick. But it all will look different for each mom and for each pregnancy, of course. And I've had clients that tell me: Hey, I've had alopecia since giving birth, since having my baby. And to me, when I see this and I'm very much alerted, but Hashimoto's again, is also that statistic that 18-20% of women are going to have this are going to be escorted into this arenawithout even realizing. And so that's something that could be hampering the hair loss, but also all your other health faculties as well.

Brandy: Yeah, absolutely.

Johanna: So what would you recommend, or what's the first couple steps for a mom who's in postpartum to really assess and maybe evaluate, or maybe even before she's even postpartum, maybe to get ready and prepare for this?

Brandy: I think that's such a crucial point. The key is really to focus on this before postpartum, if possible, because there's lots of contributing factors that can lead to an autoimmune picture after our babies are born and beyond. And so one of those factors would be if our prenatal diet was poor or lacking in certain nutrients, that could certainly contribute. If there's a history of autoimmune in your family, or even in your own life, we just want to be have extra caution and do some extra testing, some extra monitoring to see where we are, where we're at with that. And then one thing that we were chatting about yesterday that I think it's important to bring up, so there's something called microchimerism, which is kind a mixing of baby and mom's blood that can happen during birth.

And during a C section birth, there's more microchimerism that happens, there's more blood that's being mixed. So the chances of that leading to an autoimmune response, the mom's body launching an immune response to that mixing of blood is higher in a C section birth. And again, we know this is in the literature. And so if somebody has a C section birth, even more so, it should be standard of care that we are, we know this, we're looking out for this and we're monitoring these moms. in even a more, a more defined way. So that's kind of the first piece is just having this awareness, having this knowledge. And then if you had none of this knowledge and you're sitting here with a six month old baby and you're like: Crap, I didn't know any of this. That's okay too. The body is amazing and the body has an amazing ability to heal. So then from there, I would just suggest that we have proper assessment and blood chemistry.

And so most people, like you said, the autoimmune condition that shows up after giving birth is Hashimoto's. That's not true with everybody, but for a lot of people, that's the one that shows up. And so doing your standard blood work, a CBC with differential, a CMP, a full iron panel, lipid panel, and then a full thyroid panel, which is going to include a TSH, free and total T3 and T4, reverse T3, and then thyroid antibodies as well. If your provider is only willing to run TSH, that isn't going to give us the full picture. That doesn't tell us where the defect is in that thyroid pathway. And we need to know that. We need to know what's happening and we need to know if you are producing antibodies, auto antibodies. Because that's the first step in getting properly diagnosed if there is an autoimmune condition happening.

So I think it's so important to advocate, to get proper testing and proper screening. And I've also, I've heard several stories of clients being unable to do that. And I just always want to empower women and moms and remind them that like, this is your life. And if you need certain testing, like there are ways to do it. There are other providers that will run it for you. There's direct to consumer options. Like if you have a provider that's telling you know that they won't run a certain test, don't stop there. There's a way to get the answers that, that you need and that you deserve to have.

Johanna: Absolutely. This is why I offer testing worldwide for my clients, because I see that the healthcare systems, many times outside of the US are very limited and they have roadblocks and they have a lot of red tape and bureaucracy to it. So access isn't there. that's one of the reasons why I started doing that. The other reason is because people need an option without having to drive miles and miles away. Some people live out where functional medicine doctors aren't available. And so testing is like almost impossible. So if I could just send it to your doorstep and you can just, you ship it back and we're good to go. And you have the testing available.

Any other tips or guidance for anyone, let's say, who's listening to this is pregnant and potentially still has alopecia or another autoimmune disease, or maybe not even alopecia, maybe they have a different autoimmune disease. I actually have a lot ofclients who have different types of hair loss, However, they do have one and two various autoimmune diseases at the same time. So not the autoimmune alopecia, but totally different, but at the same time still an autoimmune disease and they're still, you know, having symptoms, they're still going through things and maybe they need to gear up and put their ducks in a row right now before baby approaches.

Brandy: Yeah, so one component is stress. Stress can really contribute to. And autoimmune picture in somebody and pregnancy can be really stressful for some women. So just having that awareness, you really scheduling into your day a breath work practice, a gratitude practice, you know, there's other nervous system support you can do. there's meditation specifically for pregnant women and connecting to your baby that are just so lovely. just thinking about that sometimes I'm like: Oh, I want to be pregnant again, but no, I don't. I don't, but sometimes I think of those times where I just had that really lovely moment of being able to connect with my baby in utero and it's just such a lovely, precious moment.

The other thing is we want to make sure nutrient status is good. You know, make sure that we're eating. a very nutrient dense diet. You know, there are certain nutrients that we really need when thinking about mitigating risk for an autoimmune picture. You know, zinc is really important. Selenium is important. Omega 3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA, are really important, and I'm not suggesting that a person go out and start supplementing with these, especially if you're pregnant, especially if you haven't talked to your practitioner about it. But we can get these things from food, and just eating a very nutrient dense diet will really go a long way. And then one of the messages that I feel like comes across sometimes in the online world with pregnant women is that there's not a lot you can do during pregnancy, like as far as supplements or things you can take. And while that may be true, we don't have a lot of safety data for a lot of supplements. There's so many things we can do to improve our health on like a cellular and subcellular quantum level that will just move the needle so much.

So one of those is to make sure that you are hydrated, which is a common recommendation in pregnancy, but I'm not just talking about like drinking water. I'm talking about making sure that the water that is inside your cells, that your cells actually make is adequate. And then we have proper cellular hydration. And one of the best ways we can improve this is to get outside in the sunrise. That high concentration of infrared light in the sunrise really helps to improve. That production of what's called exclusion zone water in the cell. And that's something you could totally do while you're pregnant, right? Get outside in the sunrise. And I'm all for habit stacking, what can we do all together at one time? So while you're out there in the sunrise, take your shoes off and get some grounding. We can get electrons from the earth, which provide ourselves energy and vitality. It also helps the frequency of the earth. We can also kind offload and discharge any stress and negative things down into the earth as well. And this is also very well studied in the literature and the benefits of this can happen within moments and it's free and it's not hard. You just you take your shoes off and you get yourself on some dirt or some grass or even concrete if that's all you have available to you as well.I also think another key component is to find your village, find some support. We don't have villages anymore and every single person in society bears the burden of a village less mother because village less mothers are not supported. They're going to have more symptoms that could put more strain on the healthcare system. Maybe they can't go to work ,it's going to impact the economy. So I actually have a worksheet that I do with my pregnant clients that says like, where's your village? And we literally identify these people when they're available, what capacity they have to help, like what their phone number is and like that goes on our fridge. We've already have this mapped out before baby comes on who can we call on? What can we do? And as far as our friends circle, but also people more professionals, like maybe some new moms groups, maybe some there's like baby blues hotlines that we could just have their number. They're in case lactation consultants, maybe chiropractors that work with pregnant women or postpartum women. So we have all of this mapped out so that you're really set up for success. I'll pause there. I feel like that was kind of a lot coming at you.

Johanna: I'm just, Like amazed and brawled and just in awe of you and of hearing of what you're saying only because I had my baby in Europe and during COVID, so there was no village, there was no family. There was really no friends, no one I could count on. And on top of it, the healthcare system was not in my favor. You know, I'm having my first baby at 40 and I never saw a doctor. It was only midwives that I was able to see and I had to switch out the midwives three times because I found them to be very incompetent. I couldn't trust a 16-year-old to deliver my baby. I'm so sorry, I just couldn't trust the 55-year-old who was like, well, I don't know if I'll be there, maybe it'll be my assistant. I'm like: No, this is my first baby. This is not happening. No nutritional guidance. Their food pyramid. Is upside down and backwards on so many levels coming from an autoimmune situation, right? I was like, no, you're gonna, you're gonna send me in a downward spiral.

And really the education that I was able to garner, because again, there was no books in English, everything was in Dutch was all through online programs, because that was my only way to really empower myself, to educate myself because Googling only takes you so much further, but when you can do an online course and from an expert who already knows everything, who's laid it out for you, boom, like, that's really what, what I was getting at. Because, you know, 9 months sounds like a long time, but it's not, it's really, really shortened when you're trying to organize things and get things ready and man, I hear you speak. And I'm just like: Wow, my next pregnancy for sure is going to be in the US and for sure, I'm going to have a village and all these phone numbers and anyone else to talk to. Because literally, you know, I had the situation where my boobs were hurting because I had like these nodules of lactation ducts were closed and it was just, I think that was more painful than the actual process of giving birth to like a 10 pound baby because it was just out of body experience.

But in any case, I will say that, you know, we are blessed to have so many resources and we really need to uncover them, you know, as an expat in another country, I had my, I guess my excuses because it's in another language and it was very different. But here, if you all speak English, if we all live in a country, whether it's Canada, Australia,UK, or wherever you're listening from, that has those resources, grab them and make sure you have them because they're invaluable, especially for somebody, for example, like me, who's moved around so many times where their friends are all over the world and yet no one's around you and yet your family's around. I have 2 grandmas and 2 grandpas, but at the same time, they're at a commission. They've opted out to help out and that's okay too. Like, I totally respect.

But at the same time, like create your village, even when true family or maybe friends aren't around you, this is still possible. I see this in like my church group. I see this, you know, with, with you, Brandy, I see this with so many people that it is possible to create a village, even though you may be like the lone wolf that has just moved somewhere.

Brandy: I love that so much. I love this conversation because a lot of times people don't know that there are other options, right? Like even in America, it's just like: okay, you find out you're pregnant. You wait until you're like 12 weeks along, you have your first appointment. Like you just go through the status quo, you do what they say. And it's just, you just kind get funneled into this process, whatever the standard of care is. And for some people in some situations, that standard of care might be doing you a disservice,right? And, and so just having an awareness of that and bringing the power back to you.

One thing that I say to every single client on our first meeting, I tell them you are the pilot.

This is your life and your body and your health and you're the pilot and you're calling the shots. I'm your co pilot to help navigate you and make sure you don't fly us into a mountain, but like you are calling the shots. And I do this as an exercise. not just because I want them to feel empowered with me, but I want them to be able to sit in that pilot seat with any practitioner that they come across in the rest of their life and knowing that: Yeah, this is my body and my life and my health. And here's what I don't feel comfortable with, or here's what I have questions about, or here's the testing that I want.

And knowing that you get to set those parameters for yourself because you truly are the pilot and get to call those shots. And it's no different during pregnancy. There's all kinds of other resources and information and people available to help you be your co pilot and navigate and make sure you don't fly into the side of the mountain.

Johanna: I agree a hundred percent. So Dr. Brandy, did you want to give our listeners a sneak peek of your summit?

Brandy: Oh gosh. Yes, so exciting. So I have a summit coming up. It's going to be February 28th through March 6. It's called the Resilient Motherhood Summit. I am bringing in the industry's top experts to give moms all of the tools that they need to connect with the people that they need, find the answers that they need, connect the dots between their symptoms because my biggest thing is that our children are small for like 5 seconds. It's such a blip and it's such a small moment in time. I don't want you to miss it. I want you to be able to be present for every moment. I don't want you to miss out on things because you're not feeling well or because you're self conscious or you don't have enough energy or you just feel like you have to.Take a break or lay down. I don't want you to miss it. I want you to have every tool that you need to be present for every moment. So this is a free event, essentially that first week in March and I invite all of you to come.

Johanna: Yes, yes. We're going to have so many great speakers there and this will be a fantastic summit. Do not miss this, mark your calendars. And so how would they find out? How would they be able to register?

Brandy: I will have a registration link available once the event goes live. And then you just sign up and then you'll receive the emails to get the talks for each day. There'll be bonuses, workbook, like all the things.

Johanna: So for those of you who are subscribed to Alopecia Angel, you will automatically get this. So if you automatically get my podcast email, that means you're subscribed and you will get all this information because Brandy is going to be sharing with me the links and all the information so that you can mark your calendars and then you will get this. But if you are not subscribed, then you need to go to Alopecia Angel and subscribe there on the homepage. There's a contact us page, there's also a page under Hair N' Heal where you could submit your information and this will automatically subscribe you as well.

Anything else that you'd like to leave our listeners with? You've given us so many, nuggets of knowledge and gold really because postpartum is a situation that I think a lot of times people don't talk about because it's taboo. So I actually, so right before our conference, there was another conference I attended in Sedona here recently, and I met a lady who just had her 8th baby. She's 33, had her 8th baby, she lives in Ontario, Canada. So shout out to those in Ontario. Her name's Gloria and she's gone through postpartum 8 times. 8 times. And so this is who she helps. She helps people overcome postpartum because she's a pro at it at this point. And, but she's getting backlash with her church and with, you know, people in her community and like, no, we shouldn't be talking about this. And no, this is like, this should be under wraps and let's not make this available.

And at the same time, this is something that needs to be talking about openly, just like cervical cancer, just like breast cancer, just like anything else that has to do with women's health. It's not just about women, you know, being put in their place or being homemakers if they so choose or having, you know, all their kids, if they so choose, but it's also about the wellness and health of the mom, because we all know and we can all agree that when the mom is healthy and when the dad is also healthy, the kids thrive.

It's like, we want all the kids to thrive and how does that happen? We need mom to be mentally, emotionally, physically, you healthy in order for them to thrive. That's really how this works. If mom has a broken arm, if mom has a little bit of depression, if mom has anxiety, if mom has so many other things. The kids aren't going to be 100% that's just the truth of the matter.

Brandy: Yeah, absolutely. So this is why I love that village worksheet so much. And actually I will gift this to all of your listeners if you would like, so that they can have it because it really is such a powerful tool because what happens is a lot of times you're right. This is brushed under the rug. And if it's not, the conversation is, well, like, just ask for help, just reach out if you need help. No, that doesn't work. When you are, like, so sleep deprived, and you are, like, covered in milk because everything's leaking, and you don't feel good, and you're just, like, crying, what are you gonna do? Like, you don't know what to do or who to call or what to say in that moment. And if people do come by, usually they want to hold the baby and it's like: No, no, no, no, no, we are figuring this out before baby comes.

And like, we literally, I literally assigned tasks. We call these people and we tell them before baby comes, like: Hey, I'm gonna, would you be willing to be in my village? And what would you be willing to do? And we get granular, like, I want you to come over and rotate my laundry and on your way out, take the trash. Like, because that is so helpful.

But what mom, what new mom is going to ask for that in the moment? Nobody's going to be like, Hey, will you please take my trash out and rotate my laundry? We just don't, it's hard for us to ask for help. And it's hard for us to know specifically what to ask for when we're in the moment. So that's why all this gets preloaded and figured out. And then think about your web of people that you've now built in your village and what impact that might have.

When the people in those people's lives have babies, you they might be like, wow, that was really cool how she did that. And I went over to her house and it was on the fridge.

And I saw everybody there and we were all doing our part and we had our jobs and our, you know, our marching orders, and then they might have those conversations with the women in their life. And it just takes a small action like this where we keep talking about it and keep putting it into action and putting into action things that are actually helpful.

Not just: Oh, call me if you need anything. No, no, no, no, that doesn't work. It sounds good in theory and and it helps like the other person feel like they did something, like they offered their help, but it's actually not helpful. So I'm all about like granular legit action items and putting them into place.

Johanna: Have you ever explored what other countries do in terms of like postpartum care? I only ask this because for example in the Netherlands one good thing about giving birth in the Netherlands Is that you get a free housekeeper for a week so for about 7 days I think it was about 7 days. I got somebody who came to my house like 8 to 5, she was a godsend in many ways because she showed me how to bathe the baby, she helped me. She wasn't necessarily an official lactation consultant, but she helped me breastfeed and showed me ways and like kind maneuver him like a football or maneuver him like this way or that way with a pillow so that he can latch on better. And she taught me a lot of things, plus she cleaned the kitchen. She didn't cook, but she helped as much as possible. She did laundry. Didn't come out too good, but I will say she tried.And so these are things that, you know, when my husband was there, it was great as well, but having an extra person while I was in bed recouping, because on top of it, I had bled out too much. And so I was like at a commission for like 3 months, literally until all my reserves were back to normal. But at the same time, like having an extra person, even if it was just for the first week allowed the chaos and allowed us to be able to have at least one other person to help us out and show us. Because again, as a new parent, you're like: Huh, what do I do? Where do I go? Like, I don't have time to be flipping through books, trying to understand and learn everything or watch videos, right? So it was really nice to have somebody there do that. Have you explored what other countries do? And. you know, these possibilities or avenues.

Brandy: Yeah, like I know like in a lot of Asian cultures, the mom is like literally not allowed to leave their bed, you know, or go outside. That's another thing I want to add in here is just the going back to the recommendations is just the importance of warming foods and keeping your pelvis physically warm. You know, wearing socks and then warming foods like soups and broths and warming spices, you ginger, cinnamon, tumeric, these types of warming things are really helpful when going through this healing process. But yeah, in a lot of other cultures, the moms, you are required to stay inside or stay in bed and there's a lot more support offered and it just looks that first initial period after baby's born. It's completely different and there are women in the United States that go back to work at 2 weeks, which is wild. They do that because they have to, they don't have a choice.

Johanna: They have to, yeah. That, that's one thing that I did notice that the maternity leave abroad is just so much better. I have a girlfriend, an ex pat, she's from the US and she lives in France and she just had her second baby. Shout out to you Autumn. And yeah, the maternity leave is off the charts in terms of how much leave that you can keep your job, right? That's another thing I've seen, even growing up. In my 20s where I saw like the first person who was laid off was the pregnant lady and there was actually like 7 pregnant ladies in a a month and a half span at this company that I was working with in my 20s And so it was clear like they didn't want to pay the maternity leave, they didn't want to support the women and yet this is part of the workforce But in France, especially you get to keep your job and the Netherlands as well You get to come back to your job, the placeholder is saved. You know, it's kind of like a missing leg, they fill in for you and then you come back 6 months later whenever you're ready and BAM You still have a job. It's amazing.

Brandy: Yeah

Johanna: It is amazing. Well, thank you Brandy for again your lights for your knowledge, for your expertise and for You know helping women understand postpartum, what they need to be doing, the village they need to be looking for and getting their ducks in a row. And especially for those of you who live abroad or who are expats, you know, this is all so possible. We, it just may be a little bit harder, but we, you, we can still do this. And so this is part of it, reach out. I'm here to help, Brandy's here to help. Soemail us at any point if you need and we are looking forward to helping you and serving you.

Thank you so much, Brandy.

Brandy: Thank you. Have a really good rest of your day.

Johanna: You too. Take care.