Thy Da - Nervous System Regulation and Autoimmune Disease

They Da Meas: Welcome back to the show everybody. I am here today with a special guest, Tida. She's coming from Canada, my first Canadian guest. So super excited to get Tida's story out there and to share with you what she's doing in her business to help moms with autoimmune. So we should have a good episode here for you. So Tida, welcome. Thank you so much for being here. ⁓ really happy ⁓ meet you and get you on the show.

Thy Da Meas: you Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

They Da Meas: awesome. Great. Thank you. why don't we start just with ⁓ ⁓ autoimmune story. So from early symptoms to when you went to doctor to diagnosis ⁓ and all

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, so. ⁓ So I started a coaching business and I've always had like some chronic issue that I'm dealing with but not really. so the mentality was, you know, I need to get this business off the ground, get it running and then I'll really take care of my body. Yeah, so it didn't work out that way because one morning I was getting out of the shower and was brushing my hair and then huge chunk of my hair fell off. Yeah, ⁓ and then I was like feeling the side of my head and there was this really big smooth spot.

They Da Meas: ⁓ my goodness.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, I was like, oh my god, what is this? It's like really, it's a really weird feeling because you don't feel smoothest on your side of your head. So something, something was off and turned out like, it was like this side is completely bald. There was no hair left. So I, I went to the doctor and

They Da Meas: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ my gosh.

Thy Da Meas: They took some blood tests and then I had to wait for them to call me back and they called me back and you know, here in Canada if the doctor calls you back, they found something. But the lady on the phone assured me it was not urgent. So I was like, OK, maybe there's just some vitamin deficiency or whatever. So hopefully. And then that day came where I got the call from the doctor. And he was like, oh, your ANA, which is an autoimmune marker, is fairly high. It was like 1 to 1260 or something like that, which is really, really high.

They Da Meas: Yeah, yeah, hopeful. Yeah. ⁓ Okay. Yeah.

Thy Da Meas: He's like, we gotta test you for lupus. I'm like, lupus? You told me it's not urgent. I think lupus is pretty urgent. Right?

They Da Meas: Yeah. How much time has gone by since you had like the blood work to now you're talking to the doctor about testing again? Is it a long time or just?

Thy Da Meas: I had the hair loss and then it was like a month when I went to the doctor. ⁓ And then it was like a week or so after they came back with the results. Mm-hmm. Yeah, because I heard people, take, sometimes takes a long time to see someone for it. Mm-hmm.

They Da Meas: Yep. Okay. Okay, so that's not too bad. Yeah, as far as timeline goes. Okay. ⁓ for sure. There's a lot of... Well, autoimmune diseases are hard to diagnose because they're testing... Everybody's body reacts differently to the autoimmune disease, so what might show on mine for rheumatoid might not show on someone else who has rheumatoid too, so it just makes it...

Thy Da Meas: Okay. Hmm.

They Da Meas: And it can look like a million different other things. It can look like Lyme disease. It can look like lupus. It can look like psoriatic. It can look like everything. So yeah, it's not uncommon for a lot of people that I talk to that they go years sometimes without a diagnosis trying to figure it all out. But it'd be interesting to hear the difference between the medical system in Canada versus here, because I hate it here right now.

Thy Da Meas: Thank you. Yeah, yeah

They Da Meas: Okay, so then you went back and had more labs drawn?

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, I actually, I waited, I think, three or four months to see a rheumatologist. So I went to the rheumatologist and, yeah, based on my hair loss, because I had really significant hair loss, and she found some ⁓ mouth sore or something. She was like, wow, that's a really... ⁓ huge mouth so I'm like, ⁓ my god, you know. ⁓ no, I didn't hear, I didn't feel any pain. That's the thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because yeah. Yeah, so I went to her, so she, she's actually sure she's based on my hair loss and the sore that she found. ⁓ And my high ANA, it's,

They Da Meas: That must have been painful. ⁓ really? ⁓ wow. That's a blessing.

Thy Da Meas: she's like sure that I have lupus. ⁓ But she said she needed to do some more testing so I had to go get some more scan, you know, for my, it can affect other like organs too. So I had to get my heart, a scan for my heart, my jaw, ⁓ some other, some other places I can't remember. And some other blood tests too, more specific blood tests. So I, I,

They Da Meas: Okay. Mm-hmm.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, so I went to get it and then I went back to see her and then she was like, was, I don't know what specifically, but something show up for, I don't know how to say it, but synchroine, something that affects the eye and the mouth, synchroine syndrome, like dry eye and dry mouth is one of the autoimmune where it affects those areas. But I didn't have symptoms at the moment.

They Da Meas: Yeah.

Thy Da Meas: So it's really difficult too because like I don't even know because she I was like so if I have a blood test does that mean that I have lupus? She's like no it doesn't necessarily mean it and then ⁓ it has to be paired with symptoms right? ⁓ So before I went to even before I just when the doctor said lupus I was like no no I can't.

They Da Meas: Yeah. Hmm.

Thy Da Meas: I can't have this. Yeah, because I have a business to run and my kids, like what am I gonna do? Like my kids need me. I, there's seven, oh there are eight and 11 right now.

They Da Meas: Yeah. How old are you, kids? Okay, and how long have you been going through this? Just recently diagnosed?

Thy Da Meas: Um, not 2024, not 2025 actually, um, October 2024. Yeah. If I remember correctly. Yeah. Um, so I, I didn't wait for like, for him to confirm or anything because you know, so I changed my diet. I exercise. I reduced my stress.

They Da Meas: Okay. Okay, yeah.

Thy Da Meas: And I ⁓ went back to ⁓ energy medicine. I knew it previously, but at that time, I'm like, I don't have time to do this stuff. Right? So yeah.

They Da Meas: Yeah, yeah. Well, I think as mothers, we push our own health to the sideline. We're busy. We've got things to do. until there's a five alarm fire, we're just kind of like, OK, you know, and then all of a sudden we have to do something. We can't live like this anymore. So I'd be interested to hear what you changed, how you changed your diet. What was it previously and then what changes did you make?

Thy Da Meas: Yeah. Yeah. Well, previously, I'm not a really bad, like my diet is not bad at all. It's just, well. I think for me, I eat a lot of carbs because I grew up in an Asian household, so rice is a huge part of our diet. So I cut down on carbs and I followed the... Is this like an autoimmune protocol? Yeah, I followed that for a bit and cut out inflammation food.

They Da Meas: Mm-hmm. Yep, AIP.

Thy Da Meas: pepper ⁓

They Da Meas: Yeah, like ⁓ the night shades. So peppers. Yeah.

Thy Da Meas: the nightshades, And gluten for a bit too, gluten, I cut out gluten for a bit as well. And just eat more vegetable. I also did some intermittent fasting. And just...

They Da Meas: Did you find success with that?

Thy Da Meas: I did, I did, I found success with that. ⁓ And I did a little bit of movement. ⁓ But to be honest, I think that's one area that I really did not really go too much into. ⁓ so the diet changed. But I think what really helped me the most is really reduced my stress too. ⁓

They Da Meas: Yeah. And how did you, what steps did you take to do that?

Thy Da Meas: ⁓ The first one that I really lean into was ⁓ energy medicine that I studied previously but didn't have time to do. So it's just basically balancing my system, my energetic system, so for optimized healing and also ⁓ The big one that I work on is called the triple warmer. It's an energetic system that is responsible for the fight or flight. So it's the, what you call it, the general that is determining whether there's war or like if there's, because autoimmune is like your system is attacking your organs, right? So the triple warmer is the person that is that

They Da Meas: Okay. Yep. Right.

Thy Da Meas: decide, this is an enemy or this is a threat and let's throw things at it. So I work a lot with that, just training it to not feel like I'm stressing over something. It's not a threat to the body. So cease fire. Do not fire.

They Da Meas: Mm-hmm. Yes. So is this like mental practices? how do you go about turning that warrior off?

Thy Da Meas: with a specific pathway that you trace that helps train the system not to be hypervigilant, not to be on attack mode. Yeah, so it's just really simple ⁓ things that you can do ⁓ anywhere, anytime, and doesn't take very long, few seconds.

They Da Meas: ⁓ huh. Really? Is that similar to like the tapping stuff that people do and

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, yeah, because it's points, It's ⁓ the pathway that you, like we don't, yeah, there's tapping too, because this is a stomach meridian. You can tap it, right? You can tap it. Because when...

They Da Meas: Yeah.

Thy Da Meas: When your body is ⁓ feeling like ⁓ over hypervigilance and you're in threat mode all the time, so like I said previously, it's the triple warmer that's responsible to keep your body alive. when it runs out of, when it runs like, because it takes energy, right, to do its job, so if it.

They Da Meas: Mm-hmm. Okay.

Thy Da Meas: when it runs out of its own energy, it's going to take it from other sources. And one of the ones that ⁓ it takes from is the spleen, which is responsible for healing. And then it also takes from the stomach meridian as well. ⁓

They Da Meas: sources.

Thy Da Meas: So I do a lot of things too where we also balance the stomach meridian, the spleen meridian, so we can take some back of it. So we can take the energy back from the triple warmer back to those energy systems. Yeah, so. ⁓

They Da Meas: Okay, interesting. This is an avenue I've not really gone down much on. I don't know too much about this, so it's kind of fascinating. ⁓ How did you get involved in it?

Thy Da Meas: yet. It is fascinating. ⁓ well, I'm a coach, so I'm always looking for ways to help my clients and way for, for health also. And I'm also, you know, when I ⁓ do things, I'm, I'm always like, there's gotta be another way, right? There has to be another way. So that's how I found that. Cause I'm always looking for other ways. Like I don't look for like things that are readily available and just

They Da Meas: Yeah. Gotcha.

Thy Da Meas: to try to see some other, like explore other avenues that is not as, you know, available. It's not so mainstream, yeah.

They Da Meas: Yeah, not so mainstream. Yeah. I did about four years without medications, maybe five, four to five years. And I was trying to do as much holistically as I could between diet. And I worked with a kinesiologist. So we did a lot of, ⁓

Thy Da Meas: Mm-hmm.

They Da Meas: We did a lot of food testing like every month I was being tested for, because you can grow an intolerance to something if you overeat it and then if you cut it out, you can actually bring it back ⁓ in moderation, but some things you shouldn't, some things you can, but anyways, but he did a lot of healing as far as a lot of different parasite healings and things like that. it was...

Thy Da Meas: you

They Da Meas: At the same time I was also doing chiropractic care, oops sorry, chiropractic care and, jeez, acupuncture, that word just lost my hip. I lost that word for a minute there. I was doing NFC, or NFC I think is what it's called, all this like crazy stuff, just anything to keep me from being back on the biologics or DMODs or any of those medications that I had to take. And I probably did it about two years too long because I do have some joint damage from it. My biggest trigger is absolutely stress. And that is something I hear from a lot of people too. And that's something that's very difficult to train yourself to, to lower your stress or to handle it better. Or like, I didn't even know I was stressed. Cause I was just always in that, you were saying fight or flight mode. Like I just felt normal to be in the fight mode all the time. And you know, I just, now I have to, okay, you actually are stressed out right now. I have to like remind myself that this is not normal and I need to calm down and move forward in another way to help alleviate it. So is that what you're doing in your coaching career right now?

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, so my coaching is I do nervous system regulation and just basically my priority is safety, safety in the body because if the body doesn't feel safe then you have, for example, autoimmune, right, your immune system gets confused and starts attacking the body. And also in terms of business for women, particularly ambitious women who has their big goals, big life. And it's going to come with lots of stress. It's going to come with lots of stress. what I do is to, ⁓ I don't promise a stress-free life because that's impossible. So what I do is I am.

They Da Meas: Mm-hmm. Fish door. that.

Thy Da Meas: raise their stress tolerance with nervous system regulation so that they can handle the higher stress to be able to live the kind of life that they want to live, the high performance life. So that's just through creating small micro things that they can do to train their system to feel safe again and to... They don't, for example, for autoimmune, right? Like you're not, like for example, go into like a high intensity stressful business sprint and end up with flare for like two weeks. Yeah.

They Da Meas: Yes, yeah, for sure. So what practices do you put into play? Like, can you give us an example of something that you might have a client of yours do to try to regulate that, or, you know, elevate their stress barrier?

Thy Da Meas: ⁓ Well, I try to do it so that it's not an extra thing to do, not something to add to their list. And then I also try to integrate it into their daily lives. ⁓ So one way I do that is, so I have specific, like I said earlier, the specific traits that you can do to help train your system. The one that I use the most is called the triple warmer smoothie. So it's just basically you're the triple warmer. And then over time, as you do that, it helps tell your system that it is safe, that you're not in danger, that there's no need to go into attack mode. So what I do is I ask them, you know, ⁓ What is the one thing that you do every day and even better if it's like multiple times a day that you just absolutely hate?

They Da Meas: Cooking?

Thy Da Meas: And then... What is it? Cooking, said? Yeah. Yeah.

They Da Meas: That would be it for me. Cooking, I hate cooking. I hate food prepping and meal prepping and what are we eating for dinner and what are we having for lunch? just, I'm over it. Yeah. Yeah. My kids pack their own lunch now because I can't. They're 13 and 14, so they can pack their own lunch. I took that one off my plate, but we're still.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Me is packing lunch. ⁓ Packing lunch.

They Da Meas: responsible for them to be eating dinner every night and that kind of stuff. So sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah. Yeah. No, no, that's okay. Yeah, so and then I'm like, and then I was like, okay, so we're gonna use that to practice, to practice the tool that whatever tool it is that I give them to do. So that's one way. And yeah, so I think that's the best way because one, you train your system, two, ⁓ the job that you hate might become at the very least tolerable.

They Da Meas: Yeah. Well, that's good. mean, because there are some days when I don't feel good that I'm just like, I can't do this. And I get like, you know, especially with cooking, I just can't. And then I get depressed and mad and angry that this is how I feel and I just don't want to do this anymore. And now I have to cook my meals again. And so it's like a vicious cycle for sure.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

They Da Meas: So tools to help keep the stress down when you're doing that, is that what you're saying?

Thy Da Meas: not just to keep the stress at the moment but also to detrain your system to handle the stress even when you're not doing the particular tool that I give you to do. ⁓

They Da Meas: Okay. Okay, cool. So when you are... Well, what's the name of your business called?

Thy Da Meas: the name of my business. ⁓ Just TWA means coaching. Yeah.

They Da Meas: That's okay. You're just... Okay. And do you have a website?

Thy Da Meas: No, I don't. operate mostly on my Facebook because I had a website previously and nobody goes through it.

They Da Meas: Okay. Yeah, it's a waste of money. And how long have you been doing the coaching?

Thy Da Meas: ⁓ I've done it for four years, but I've just pivoted to my current nervous system regulation ⁓ the last, I see, year and a bit, maybe year and a half.

They Da Meas: Okay, so let's go back a little bit to your diagnosis because I assume the reason that you started the coaching is because you've implemented these tools into your own life and saw great results with the autoimmune and with the stress and things like that. are you on any medications right now?

Thy Da Meas: I'm not on any medication. ⁓ Yeah, yeah, I'm feeling pretty good.

They Da Meas: good for you and you're feeling good. Good. Your hair looks great, so it doesn't look like you're losing any hair. ⁓ Yeah, so I guess my question would be, ⁓ if somebody wanted to try to regulate their nervous system, what's the number one thing that you would suggest for them?

Thy Da Meas: Thank you. ⁓ ⁓ The number one thing I suggest for no assistive regulation. ⁓ ⁓ I would suggest to, because a lot of the stress comes from the mind, so I would suggest ⁓ to be more in the body because ⁓ the body is, because we experience through the body, right? So if you live in the body, especially through the five senses, touch, smell, sight, ⁓

They Da Meas: Mm-hmm.

Thy Da Meas: Focus more on those sensations without ⁓ narrating in your head. And just be more present in your day. For example, I started this previously. ⁓ Not previously, like recently. ⁓ Like walking to work or whatever. I would just be like, ⁓ my god. Look at the green on the leaf. And just kind of.

They Da Meas: Okay. Okay, yeah.

Thy Da Meas: Focus it and appreciate it. If you like appreciating the sight, appreciating like even just your feet touching on the ground, it tells your body that you are here, that you are solid in the ground, and you have time to appreciate the green leaves, like there's no danger because you are able to be in appreciation.

They Da Meas: ⁓ huh. Almost like you're in gratitude. Yeah, you're in gratitude. Yes, and you... Okay. I've heard that a lot as far as like your mind... Like a lot of people have such high anxieties with autoimmune diseases and if you are in a state of high anxiety, if you can say three things you're grateful for, like your brain can't do two things like that at once. It can't be anxious and grateful.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, yeah, gratitude, yeah. So that's the first step, Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

They Da Meas: it can only be grateful if you practice it. ⁓ So even people who are with high anxiety in this moment, it's like, okay, let's snap out of it, write down three things I'm grateful for, let's focus on those, like what you're saying, go outside, see the green grass, get in touch with nature, ⁓ basically movement to get yourself out of this situation, the anxiety. Because I had a lot of people who have that anxiety, things like around

Thy Da Meas: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

They Da Meas: taking different medications that lot of us have to take. And that's been helpful to me to sort of.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, yeah, for sure.

They Da Meas: retrain my brain to thinking like, okay, now I'm taking this infusion, but I'm actually trying to envision that this medication is healing myself. It's fixing myself. It's like going into my body and it's calming down the inflammation and I'm feeling better. And that really helped me because I was, I'd say pretty paranoid and scared to death to take some of these medications that I've taken because they're not, you know, don't, when you read the side effects, they're not good. But when I was, made that switch in my head to mentally take a second and no, this medication is helping me, it's healing my cells, it's lowering my inflammation, and know, kind of like using affirmations sort of. ⁓ That was a big jump for me. Do you, I've talked about this before a little bit, see people with trauma being... ⁓

Thy Da Meas: Hmm.

They Da Meas: their nervous systems are all messed up. Like a lot of people will say to me, my diagnosis came after I had this huge stress period in my life and you know, my sibling passed away or my mother passed, you know, like they have these big stressful trauma events and then they're constantly stuck in the fight or flight as you were saying, and then autoimmune disease develops and then bam, here we are. I'm wondering if you've noticed that in your practice.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, for sure, right? Because, again, trauma creates fear and it leaves a mark in the body and the body cannot feel safe with that. So if you don't ⁓ do something to release it from the body, then your body gets stuck in fight or flight and then over time...

They Da Meas: Okay. Yes.

Thy Da Meas: ⁓ It can not just autoimmune any kind of ⁓ illness because when you're stuck in fight or flight, a lot of the energy, a lot of energy and resources is diverted to running away from whatever it is that your body is constantly fearing. And that means less resources for healing, less resources for fighting infection, less resources for... ⁓

They Da Meas: Excuse me.

Thy Da Meas: digestion. So yeah.

They Da Meas: Yeah, for digestion, yeah. Interesting. I do think that there is a piece of that to any illness, unresolved traumas that have happened. So when you left the doctor with the lupus diagnosis and sojourns or whatever the other one is that I have trouble saying to,

Thy Da Meas: Mm-hmm. Hahaha

They Da Meas: You changed your diet and you said you did this energetic work. Is there anything else that you tried, maybe tried and didn't work or? ⁓

Thy Da Meas: I took supplement also because I also see a natural path. So I took supplement and I was deficient in vitamin D too. So I did that. I took that as well. ⁓ No, I don't think so. just changed my diet and really work on ⁓ my energy, ⁓ balancing my energy and be more mindful of ⁓ living my life with reduced stress and being more in the present moment and having more gratitude. They always say gratitude and appreciation.

They Da Meas: Yeah.

Thy Da Meas: Also doing the work I do because ⁓ working with clients and jumping on calls with clients to help regulate their nervous system in turn also helps me ⁓ with mine as well.

They Da Meas: ⁓ huh. Yeah, when you feel fulfilled in your own work, it makes your life ⁓ have more meaning, I think. Like, I'm in real estate. I love helping people.

Thy Da Meas: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

They Da Meas: I love helping people. That's why I do real estate. It's not even really any other reason. just really, it's almost selfish. I love helping people. And however I can do that through my podcast, that's why I do this. I love to help other moms out there who are struggling ⁓ to feel a little bit less alone. So yeah, I think that that is a big part of it too. Because if you're miserable in whatever your work life or family life or it's constant. ⁓

Thy Da Meas: Mm.

They Da Meas: cycle of negativity and you really have to I think when you're living with an autoimmune disease find something that lights your soul because especially with things like Rheumatoid it's very painful and it's very dark and it's very depressing so I love that you found something that you know you can help others but you it helps yourself you know like I was saying it's almost kind of selfish

Thy Da Meas: Mm-hmm. Who isn't selfish at some level? Come on, who are we trying to kid? Everybody is looking out for themselves. even, you know what? If everybody's just looking about themselves and trying to live their best life, that itself can make a huge positive impact on the world. So, yeah. Yeah.

They Da Meas: I know. Yes, I agree. I absolutely agree. ⁓ Is there anything else that you want to say about your business to help to like, I know you said you're on Facebook, so people can find you through there. But I just want to make sure you feel like I want our audience if they're interested in learning more about energetic, how can they get ahold of you?

Thy Da Meas: Mm-hmm. through my Facebook ⁓ page. So I do offer five free sessions. So if they're interested, they can just DM me on my Facebook and I can tell them more about it.

They Da Meas: Okay. Okay, I'll put it in the show notes and things like that. So are you actively being seen by rheumatologists? Have you gone back and gotten your labs done recently? What did they look like?

Thy Da Meas: ⁓ Yeah, I've seen, I've seen actually just recently, maybe a couple weeks ago, and I'm supposed to go ⁓ get some labs just to check to make sure and I have another appointment next in one year from now. So, yeah. Everything's looking good. She was like, ⁓ my, you must have a great... ⁓

They Da Meas: Everything's looking good.

Thy Da Meas: Dressless, like low stress life, mean low stress here. I was like, no, this year hasn't actually been really horrible. Yeah.

They Da Meas: Ugh. Do you think that the rheumatologist, ⁓ do you tell her about what you're doing to help manage your symptoms?

Thy Da Meas: well, I don't go into the energy thing because I don't know how she feels about it because not a lot of people are open to it. So yeah, I have to.

They Da Meas: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I find they really don't want to hear about anything that we do outside of take their medications like it. And I've seen I've moved. I've had several different rheumatologists over the last 16 years. And I just don't even mention it anymore, because if I'm doing something, I just I feel like it's a waste of time. It's in one ear and out the other. And they don't think that, you know, some of the stuff that does help.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah. Yeah.

They Da Meas: Some people, every body is different. So what works for me might not work for you and what works for you might not work for me. But ⁓ I think there's enough evidence out there that some of these things actually are very helpful and maybe not in like a full blown remission, but they help people feel better for sure. And I wish there were rheumatologists were more open or any doctor that I've seen really to these alternative treatments.

Thy Da Meas: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah. Yeah, for sure. That's why it's important. We have other ⁓ practitioner or other options and there's lots of information out there and you just have to go out there and find it and be open. I think ⁓ sometimes that's a bit of a ⁓ blockage too because people might not be open just because

They Da Meas: Yeah. Yes. ⁓ Right.

Thy Da Meas: It's not as, like I said previously, readily available, readily accepted by mainstreams. So there's a little bit more, like you don't believe it more. ⁓ Skepticism, yeah, skepticism, yeah.

They Da Meas: Thank Yes, there's more put back for sure, skepticism. And I think too, I don't know what it's like in Canada, but it's pretty cost prohibited for a lot of people here when we seek these naturopaths or ⁓ any other more holistic type doctors. They're usually out of pocket. You have to pay a lot more money and it's a lot more labs and a lot of people don't wanna... ⁓

Thy Da Meas: Thank you.

They Da Meas: or can't afford to do it. But there's enough out there on the internet. It's almost information overload. You can feel really over-barded with the stuff on the internet, but it's all worth trying because not trying isn't getting you any better either. you know.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, for sure.

They Da Meas: ⁓ Do you, anyone else in your family have any autoimmune diseases?

Thy Da Meas: Not that I'm aware of. That's why she was pretty surprised because I don't have a family history.

They Da Meas: Yeah, yeah, that could be. I don't have a family history. I just found out this week that one of my mother's cousins had rheumatoid for 30 years, but we didn't. I didn't know that she's had it for 30 years. ⁓ Not this week, but this month, but lots of autoimmune in my family. So it's just interesting like who gets them and who doesn't and why me and not my brother or my sister, you know? ⁓

Thy Da Meas: Mm-hmm. Okay. Right. Mm-hmm. Mm.

They Da Meas: And it probably has something to do with energy blockage and how we all deal with different things in our lives. So ⁓ I think it's very interesting.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, for sure. It's a... I think it's a whole bunch of things too, right? It's just not one factor. It's a lot of them together. Yeah, so that's why, like, you just don't do one thing. You gotta, like, do almost, like, you know, the diet and then heal your trauma and... Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah.

They Da Meas: Yes. Yes, I think that's a big thing, the healing of the trauma. Because I was like a perfect patient for like natural paths and I was eating nothing like literally boiled chicken and broccoli at one point. Everything else was off the table and you know doing the acupuncture and doing the hot saunas and doing everything else that I could do and I still was miserable and then someone said to me you know need to work on the emotional part of

Thy Da Meas: Mm-hmm. You

They Da Meas: this, the emotional energy working and that's when the tapping stuff and all of that EFT, I don't remember it either.

Thy Da Meas: EFT, Emotional freedom technique, think that's what it's called. ⁓

They Da Meas: Yes, that's how I like it. I'm so bad at that stuff. can't, you know, I don't know because we're busy with moms. sitting down and meditating, it's really hard. I can't do that stuff. I tried. ⁓ And you have to be in the right space to do it. think, you know, like it's, gotta be ready and willing and able to do these things to get the full benefit of it. ⁓ But I love your story and I'm excited to share it with more people.

Thy Da Meas: ⁓ no. Yes. Yes.

They Da Meas: and ⁓ hopefully get you some business up there in Canada. Do you do everything like online or do you do in person?

Thy Da Meas: ⁓ yeah. Yeah, yeah, I do everything online just because of time constraint too, because I have a business, I have kids, and manage my health also. So online saved me a lot of time. yeah, yeah.

They Da Meas: Mm-hmm. ⁓ for sure. Yeah. The managing of your health is grossly underestimated by people who actually have good health. They have no idea how much time and energy and ⁓ finances and all goes into it when you don't feel, when you're sick and you have these diseases. It's no joke. It's a full-time job on top of raising your kids and your full-time job sometimes. Yeah. Yeah.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. And it's something like, I told you, like something people that said, ⁓ it can wait, but. Not until the body's like, nope, no more. And then you're like, you can't get out of bed.

They Da Meas: Not again. Yeah. What were some of the symptoms that you were kind of ignoring at the beginning?

Thy Da Meas: ⁓ Well, I have a lot of gut issues. that's one of the not just for autoimmune, for everything, everything that seemed to be linked back to the gut issue. So I have I was eating things I shouldn't be eating. And of course, I have like symptoms from that, but it's not enough. know, it's not debilitating enough. So you just continue to do it. Yeah, yeah.

They Da Meas: Yeah. Yeah, it's not inconvenient enough for you to make a change. Yeah.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, yeah. So mostly a lot of that and a lot of stress too that I was not taking care of with that. also, what... I think mostly my gut that I have been ignoring and doing things that I just like eat eating things I shouldn't be eating and aggravating it. Yeah, that's a big one. Yeah.

They Da Meas: Yeah. Do you still do intermittent fasting?

Thy Da Meas: ⁓ I stopped for a while because I had some issues so I had to stop for a bit but I do want to start back on it because it really helps with there were some symptoms that I had quite frequently too. I just realized it has to do with ⁓ my cycle. So I found intermittent fasting really helps with that. ⁓ So I do want to get back into it. yeah, yeah.

They Da Meas: ⁓ huh. I've done it in my past as well. And I'm like a little nervous to do it now because now I'm perimenopo, I'm 47, perimenopo. They say it's harder as you get older to do it. But I mean, I would do like three day fast before. And then I would do like intermittent fasting. You know, I was like so big into it. Probably not the best. I don't, you know, I felt great after the three day fast, though.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, yeah. ⁓ really? Really?

They Da Meas: I had so much energy, I felt good, I wasn't bloated, my joints felt good. But it's mentally taxing too. Yeah.

Thy Da Meas: It is, it is, it is. But there's ⁓ a, follow Dr. Mindy Paz. She talks about fasting specifically for women because for women ⁓ you have to fast differently because there's certain part of your cycle which fasting can, it's not good for, it's detrimental.

They Da Meas: Yes. What's her name?

Thy Da Meas: Dr. Mindy Pez. ⁓

They Da Meas: Okay. Yeah, because you and I are definitely not doctors. We're just talking about our own life experiences here. We are not trying to get anybody to take any doctor, you know, to do any treatments. Talk to your doctor first. Yeah.

Thy Da Meas: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Like I, yeah, I'm not a doctor. like, you know, you do your diet, you do your exercise and you're still not getting results. I offer that maybe your nervous system piece is the missing, the missing link. Yeah.

They Da Meas: It probably is. mean, you know, there's just I don't know. It can be exhausting trying to treat yourself, trying to heal yourself, trying to get better. And you your nervous system is one of the biggest systems in your body, right? Like there's no way it's not all. I think I'm a true believer that everything is connected. It's all connected. And that's part of the problem that we have now is that no doctors look at you as a whole person. They just look at you as someone with rheumatoid, somebody with diabetes, somebody with heart disease.

Thy Da Meas: It is, yes. Thank

They Da Meas: You don't have one doctor who's like, ⁓ you are an actual person with lupus and sojourns. And you have all these things going on. And maybe, I don't know, what else you might have or don't have. But no one's actually looking at you as a whole person. just treating whatever their specialty is. And that makes it frustrating for those of us who don't have a medical degree and don't understand all of this. It's very difficult.

Thy Da Meas: It is, you know, and we have to like go out and look for answers ourselves. You know, it's, it's, yeah, yeah.

They Da Meas: Yeah, you really have to advocate for yourself because they don't, if you don't, if you have labs drawn and you don't hear from the doctor, it doesn't mean that they were great. It just means the doctor didn't call you. You have to like look at your labs, see what they say and then call the doctor back. That's how it is here. They just, unless it's something really bad, they, they're, you know, you might have one or two things that come back. elevated or whatever and then I don't hear from the doctor until I see her again in four months and she's like, ⁓ that was a little bit elevated. It's like no one's looked at that for four months. It's not urgent, but it's my life and I don't feel good. It's urgent to me, you know, like I'm tired all the time. Well, my ferritin is low because my iron is low. So of course I'm tired, but no one's going to tell me that because it's not like that big of a deal. So it can be frustrating.

Thy Da Meas: It's not urgent. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is frustrating. you mentioned the lab is good, right? So I want to also, you know, for the like the doctor, they look at lab and people, ⁓ the lab come back clear and people, you know, they're like, ⁓ you know, I'm okay. But the thing is, ⁓ just because your lab is good now doesn't mean you're good. Like it's just mean

They Da Meas: That actual minute, that minute that they, yes, exactly. The minute that they drew your blood, you were okay. But that doesn't mean today you're okay. You know what I mean? Like, or even that that means it's, it's, don't know. The system is broken and it's really difficult. ⁓ How do you feel about ⁓ being a mother with autoimmune? Has that changed how you, how you parent at all or?

Thy Da Meas: the level hasn't yet yeah it hasn't reached a level yet yeah yeah so yeah yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

They Da Meas: Is there a shift in the household a little bit or?

Thy Da Meas: ⁓ To be honest, I don't really feel much of a shift. More like, maybe I do, do. Because I did have a, you know, this scared me a bit. So it kind of like, ⁓ my God, you know, I need to ⁓ be present with my family and spend more time with them. So it did help me.

They Da Meas: Mm-hmm.

Thy Da Meas: be more consciously present when I play with them and take them out and just spend more time with not even just my kid, with my parents too. I make the intention to go see them frequently, you know, because ⁓ nobody knows how long. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They Da Meas: Mm-hmm. It puts things into perspective, yeah. Yes, for sure. ⁓ No, I feel the same way. I try to enjoy the smaller moments with my kids and my friends and family ⁓ when I can and put out some of the negativity that comes with this as much as I possibly can. But.

Thy Da Meas: Hmm. Yeah.

They Da Meas: There's also some positives that have come out of this. I've said it before on my podcast, but I wouldn't have a podcast. I wouldn't live in South Carolina where we've relocated to get out of the cold of the Boston weather. I couldn't handle it anymore. Not all of it has been bad. And I'm trying to find the positive and share the positives. Because it's not, I mean, I would give it away in a minute. I don't love having it or whatever, but if I could.

Thy Da Meas: Mmm. Yeah. Of not, Yeah.

They Da Meas: If I could, I would get rid of it. But I can now take a step back. had it for 16 years and say, you know what? This isn't this happened because of it. I'm grateful for that. So ⁓ and that I guess that maybe that is a little bit of healing and maybe some inner energy work that I did somewhere along the line. Didn't realize I was doing it. Let it go. Yeah. Awesome.

Thy Da Meas: ⁓ wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

They Da Meas: Well, Tita, thank you so much for being on the show today. I've really enjoyed getting to know you and listening to ⁓ energy healing work. I'm definitely going to do some research into this. I think it's an interesting topic. And ⁓ is there anything else you want to say to the listeners?

Thy Da Meas: I I've said it all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't, no, ask me, you know what? Don't wait for a diagnosis to take care of yourself because once you're given the label, it's almost, it's, you can, like, almost too late. So that's when the damage is already done. So yeah, and you don't need to wait for a diagnosis to take care of yourself with, like, because I know that with autoimmune, sometimes it takes a long time.

They Da Meas: than at all, yeah. ⁓ Yes. Yes, I agree. Mm-hmm.

Thy Da Meas: But I didn't wait for diagnosis. I went and took care of... Yeah, yeah. ⁓

They Da Meas: Change things, yeah. And that's a good thing as a mother, you know, your kids witnessed that. They saw that you had a scary moment and you made some changes and the hard work you put into it has ⁓ paid off because you do feel better. Your blood work is all good. Your rheumatologist thinks you're doing great.

Thy Da Meas: Okay.

They Da Meas: So that's all proof to your kids. I always try to think about how can we use these things as parenting tools and teaching moments to our children. And that's a really great one. Try different things and don't just sit around and wait for things to get better. You have to be an active participant in your own health and life for sure.

Thy Da Meas: Hmm. Yeah. Don't wait. Now. Now. Now is the time. Like even with life too, that ⁓ scare too is like don't wait for life to get quiet, to enjoy it. Find the quiet. I mean, find the joy in the little moments. Because big moments are rare. But little moments are everywhere.

They Da Meas: Don't wait! They are big love. And you'll miss the little moments when you don't have them anymore, you know? if, God forbid, something happens and you don't have that little moment you had with your parent or whoever, those are the things you'll miss and regret that you didn't enjoy as much in the actual moment. So I love it. Thank you so much for being here. I will put your Facebook in my show notes, so make sure people can reach out to you and get more information. awesome. I'm going to...

Thy Da Meas: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.