December 11, 2018

Meet Cheryl Meyer of Cheryl M Health Muse

John and I in frames

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cheryl Meyer.

Cheryl, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Seven years ago, I woke up one morning and everything in my body hurt. My muscles and my joints were in extreme pain. It didn’t go away.

I went to my doctor four different times and had tests run. She finally called me and told me there was nothing wrong with me, that I should seek therapy, and that she was going to prescribe steroids for the pain. I refused the pills and knew something was causing the pain, so I turned my jewelry business over to my staff and started researching. I tripped across a series of symposiums by the Functional Medical community on different diseases of the body.

There were 20 in all, and each had multiple doctors making presentations. They mostly had gotten sick themselves and couldn’t “heal” themselves, so they had gone for additional education and certification in “Functional Medicine” which is “root cause” medicine, where they look at the entire body, not just one system. After listening to all of these, it appeared that I probably had an autoimmune disease, and they kept referring to leaky gut. What was leaky gut? What could I do about it?

I learned I could lower my stress and that I could eliminate toxins to give my body a chance and start to heal my gut. I started researching and was appalled I had hundreds of toxins in all phases of my life. I dug into the database at the Environmental Working Group who has tested hundreds of thousands of everyday products in our lives, and started purging toxins one by one, in my food, my cosmetics, my over the counter drugs, my cleaning supplies, my water, my cooking supplies and food storage, and then I started reading about how to eliminate toxic stress, toxic lack of sleep, toxic anxiety, toxic relationships (I was in a long-term one when I got sick, and it ended) and toxic lack of movement.

I then researched and found a Functional MD in the LA area, and I traveled to the valley to see her. Again, she practiced root cause medicine and looked at my entire body, not just one system. The first test she ran confirmed that I did indeed have an autoimmune disease. She ran a sensitivity test instead of allergy tests. Whereas I was only allergic to the tape that held the allergy test on my back that my conventional MD gave me, I discovered I had 18 food sensitivities: different test, different result. Eliminating those foods was a giant step back to health and away from pain. Different thyroid tests showed that I did have a thyroid problem. My cortisol was very low but not to Addison’s Disease, so whats to do according to my conventional MD.

My functional MD found some easy fixes to bring my cortisol back up to normal. I was very deficient in vitamin d and magnesium. Then we started peeling away at the onion of my health. We started to do work to “heal” my “leaky gut.” (The work I was doing to eliminate toxins and stress was exactly what I should have been doing). We discovered I had MTHFR, so my body doesn’t detox easily which were SNPs I had inherited from both of my parents, We did a heavy metal test, and I was loaded with them, so we did a slow detox to extract them. Next up was mold, and yep, I was loaded with mold. I kept eliminating toxins and reducing my stress and improving my sleep and over the course of 5 years, with the help of my functional MD I returned to relative wellness.

I will always have an autoimmune disease, but I no longer have pain. I decided that I wanted to help others who were experiencing pain but who also did not want to live a life of pain and pills. I returned to school at 67 in 2016 to become a health coach, I wrote an award-winning book called It Feels Good to Feel Good, Learn to Eliminate Toxins, Reduce Inflammation and Feel Great Again. (12 awards). I started speaking locally to hospitals, churches, businesses about all that I had learned. I have now done over 50 podcasts to spread the word that the body wants to heal, we just need to clean up, lower our toxic load and eat real food so that our bodies have the nutrients and tools it needs to be healthy. I work with clients one on one.

I have a free virtual class online about what the biggest deceptions are about the products that we use and where the most poisons are. I just finished a six part virtual class called Food Quality Matters, discussing organic, vs. conventionally grown produce, vs. GMO and what that means to our body; the synthetic ingredients in processed foods and fast foods that feed our body no nutrition; the gift of color- what each color in fruits and vegetables has to offer our body in terms of nutrients;, the perils of sugar, both real and fake; proteins, both animal and vegetable, and what to choose, and finally how to cook clean and exchange out ingredients to make healthier food to support our health

I have started writing my second book to help people with all the tips I have learned on how to live a healthier life without pain and pills. How to buy organic and eat healthy on a budget, how to eat out, how to travel with healthy food, what kind of exercise works for me and how to find exercise to work for you, how I get a consistently great nights sleep and how I keep my stress level at bay, how to eat out around my 18 food sensitivities and finally how I eat healthy without being deprived. I have met many people who are also being told that their illness is in their heads. I want them to discover that they can own their own health and be in control of their own wellness and they don’t need to live a life of pain and pills.

We are 37th in the world in health, and I believe it because of all of the toxins in our lives. 53% of our children now have some kind of chronic illness, and they are even being born with a healthy toxic load, so I want to touch mothers lives to clean up for their children. I believe that we are all running so fast that we are not taking the time to listen to our body. Inflammation can take up to 20 years to reach the tipping point. I had clues along the way but didn’t pay attention to them, so I want people to discover how to listen to their bodies and own them. If I can help people eliminate the pain of their chronic illness, then I have won.

Inflammation is not only autoimmune conditions, its cancer, depression, skin ailments, Parkinson’s and dementia. It’s diabetes, ADHD, and even allergies and hay fever. I promote lifestyle changes to regain health and have found my mission.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
In the beginning, I just knew that I hurt and that I didn’t want a life of pain and pills. Both of my parents had had unusual illnesses and the medication became a bigger problem than the disease that they struggled with.

In the beginning, I didn’t even know what I was looking for, and doing research took tenacity because everything in my body hurt, but I kept going. I started eating real food, and no processed food or fast food. When I made enough changes that my body started to feel better, it became easier to continue the research and to stay the course. I started replacing the toxins in my life one by one.

And then finally finding and working with a Functional MD made all the difference. I can tell you that it truly DOES feel good to feel good when you lose your health, very little else matters. And it wasn’t just about educating my self, but also educating loved ones around me. I bought family members cookbooks that I could eat from if I joined them for dinner, or took my own food with me.

Owning my health and taking care of me became much more important than pleasing others and with a careful, loving explanation I got their support. I have learned that people have to come to their own conclusions about how to eat and live and own their bodies, so I learned to show by example only. I knew that I wasn’t crazy and that I truly hurt, so that was my starting off point and holding onto that as I did my research made all the difference.

We’d love to hear more about what you do.
I am a health coach now, Cheryl M Health Muse because I want to inspire others to own their own health and return to wellness. I specialize in things that people struggle with as a result of inflammation, weight, pain, autoimmune disease, diabetes, skin disorders, depression from a food perspective, how to lower toxic load to return to health and the things they can do themselves to heal “leaky gut.” I encourage clients to OWN their OWN health and encourage changes to lower their toxic load.

What sets me apart is that I didn’t want a life of pain and pills, so I defied conventional medicine and researched to find my own answers. I didn’t know that conventional MD’s only get 1/2 a day on nutrition in medical school and that all they are taught is to match the pill to the symptom. They are not the “Who said of the Greatest Magnitude,” each of us needs to fill our own role for our own body.

Conventional medicine is needed but not in lieu of our taking responsibility for our own health. I have walked in the shoes of my clients, which makes me a more compassionate coach. I am not inspiring them to do anything that I haven’t done myself. I turn 70 in January, and I am proud that I feel good and that I am touching lives daily with my knowledge so that they can return to wellness too.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I have started my second book to help people live a healthy life. I plan to start my own podcast in 2019. I want to talk to companies that create lower toxic products and also to others who have owned their own health and overcome illness. I want to touch as many lives as possible and give them hope.

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