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• Anik’s experience of developing psoriasis and its emotional impact
• The circumstances she personally associates with the onset of her symptoms
• Why the search for healing can sometimes become another source of stress
• The moment she stopped fighting her body and changed her internal narrative
• What happened during her five-day mindset practice
• The relationship between the brain, nervous system and immune system
• What the placebo effect can—and cannot—tell us about healing
• How neuroplasticity may help us establish new patterns of thought
• Why mindset work should support rather than replace appropriate medical care
• The possible relationship between emotional stress, gut health and immune regulation
• Simple affirmations and daily practices that may help create a greater sense of safety
• Anik’s advice for somebody newly diagnosed with psoriasis

Thanks for listening! You can join The Autoimmune Forum on Facebook or find me on Instagram @theautoimmunitynutritionist.

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September is Alopecia Awareness Month, so in this Friday Five episode of The Autoimmune RESET, I’m talking about a subject that is very close to my heart, both personally and professionally: hair loss.

Having experienced alopecia myself, and now working with women, men and children experiencing alopecia and other forms of hair loss in my clinic, I see how quickly the conversation can become focused on the hair itself.

Which shampoo should I use? Is my ferritin high enough? Should I take biotin? What can I do to make my hair grow back?

These are understandable questions. But hair loss isn't one single condition, and there are many different reasons why somebody's hair may begin shedding, thinning or disappearing in patches.

Hair loss isn't simply a cosmetic concern. Sometimes the most useful information comes when we stop looking only at the hair and start looking at the person experiencing it.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why identifying the type of hair loss should come first
• Why something that happened months ago may be relevant to shedding today
• Why ferritin isn't the only nutritional consideration for hair growth
• How inadequate calories and protein can affect the hair cycle
• Where thyroid, postpartum and perimenopausal changes may fit
• Why seemingly unrelated symptoms can provide useful clinical context
• How Symptom Intelligence™ can change the way we investigate hair loss

Important: This episode is for educational purposes and isn't intended to diagnose the cause of your hair loss. Sudden, unexplained or significant hair loss should be medically assessed, and suspected scarring hair loss requires prompt specialist assessment.

🧘‍♀️ Need nervous system support?
→ I personally use and recommend SONA, a vagus nerve stimulation device clinically shown to support immune balance, inflammation, and stress recovery.
Use code VJ10 for 10% discount at checkout.

📥 New to the podcast or need a starting point?
→ Download my free The Autoimmunity Recovery Plan
— a simple guide that outlines the steps I recommend to all clients as they begin calming the immune response and rebuilding resilience.

Thanks for listening! You can join The Autoimmune Forum on Facebook or find me on Instagram @theautoimmunitynutritionist.

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Many of us have become so accustomed to being the capable one—the person who helps, fixes and takes responsibility—that we rarely stop to ask whether everything we are carrying is actually ours to carry.

In this episode of The Autoimmune RESET, I’m joined by Dr Rachel Morris, former GP, host of the You Are Not a Frog podcast and creator of The Shapes Toolkit.

Rachel introduces us to what she calls the responsibility trap: the gradual accumulation of responsibility without it ever being consciously or explicitly handed over. Although particularly common among healthcare professionals, it is a pattern that will resonate with anyone who feels responsible for keeping everything—and everyone—together.

We explore the three mechanisms that can keep us trapped: the silence gap, the helping reflex and the mismatch between control and responsibility. Rachel also explains why “just say no” is rarely useful advice when saying no feels like a failure of identity rather than a straightforward practical decision.

This is an important conversation about shame, boundaries, capacity and the difference between genuinely caring for others and automatically carrying responsibility for them.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why caring about something does not necessarily make you responsible for it
• The subtle ways responsibility can land on us without being explicitly assigned
• The silence gap, the helping reflex and the control–responsibility mismatch
• Why shame often sits beneath an automatic “yes”
• Why logical advice about boundaries may not reach the real source of the problem
• How to distinguish what you care about from what you can genuinely control
• Why saying yes when you cannot sustain it may simply create a deferred let-down
• The limitations of telling people to become more resilient within structurally unhealthy systems
• How to begin making more conscious and sustainable choices about what you carry

About Dr Rachel Morris

Dr Rachel Morris is a former GP, the host of the You Are Not a Frog podcast and the creator of The Shapes Toolkit. Her work helps healthcare professionals and other people working in high-pressure roles beat stress, set healthier boundaries and work more sustainably—without believing they simply need to become tougher or more resilient.

Connect with Rachel

Website: youarenotafrog.com
Instagram and LinkedIn: @drrachelmorris
Free Overwhelm SOS Toolkit: youarenotafrog.com/overwhelm
Beat Stress and Thrive course: The Shapes Toolkit

If this episode resonates with you, please subscribe to The Autoimmune RESET, leave a review and share it with someone who may be carrying more than is truly theirs.

📥 Ready for a more structured, personalised approach?
→ Apply to work with me
— we’ll create a clear, step-by-step plan tailored to your body, your symptoms, and your goals.

📥 New to the podcast or need a starting point?
→ Download my free The Autoimmunity Recovery Plan
— a simple guide that outlines the steps I recommend

The information shared in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider.

Thanks for listening! You can join The Autoimmune Forum on Facebook or find me on Instagram @theautoimmunitynutritionist.

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If you have hypothyroidism, take thyroid medication and have been told that your blood tests are “normal”, it can be incredibly frustrating to still feel exhausted.

Sometimes your thyroid function or medication does need another look, but fatigue is not specific to hypothyroidism, and your thyroid does not operate in isolation. Thyroid hormones interact with your nutrient status, gut health, stress response, sex hormones, cellular energy production and whether you are eating enough to meet the demands being placed on your body.

I remember living with chronic fatigue and hoping that an endocrinologist would prescribe levothyroxine and everything would fall back into place. Although there were issues with my thyroid, there was far more contributing to how I felt.

In this Friday Five episode of The Autoimmune RESET Podcast, I explore five areas I would investigate when someone with hypothyroidism continues to feel exhausted.

In this episode, I discuss:

• Why TSH does not give us the complete thyroid picture
• The difference between T4 and the more metabolically active T3
• What can influence thyroid hormone conversion and utilisation
• Why it may be useful to consider free T4, free T3 and thyroid antibodies
• The relationship between iron stores, ferritin, fatigue and hair loss
• Other nutrients involved in thyroid function and energy production
• Why a “clean” diet is not necessarily a nutrient-dense one
• How restrictive eating and chronic under-fuelling can affect energy, recovery, hair and menstrual health
• Why more exercise and health optimisation are not always the answer
• The importance of considering your overall stress load and capacity to recover
• How gut health may affect nutrient absorption, immune health and thyroid hormone metabolism
• Why symptoms of hypothyroidism and perimenopause can be difficult to distinguish
• How apparently unrelated changes in digestion, sleep, skin, hair, periods and stress tolerance can help reveal the wider picture

If you are still exhausted, the answer may not be to focus more intensely on your thyroid. It may be time to widen the lens and consider what else has changed around the same time.

Please continue to have your thyroid appropriately monitored and treated by your doctor, and never alter prescribed thyroid medication without speaking to the clinician responsible for your care.

🧘‍♀️ Need nervous system support?
→ I personally use and recommend SONA, a vagus nerve stimulation device clinically shown to support immune balance, inflammation, and stress recovery.
Use code VJ10 for 10% discount at checkout.

📥 New to the podcast or need a starting point?
→ Download my free The Autoimmunity Recovery Plan
— a simple guide that outlines the steps I recommend to all clients as they begin calming the immune response and rebuilding resilience.

The information shared in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider.

Thanks for listening! You can join The Autoimmune Forum on Facebook or find me on Instagram @theautoimmunitynutritionist.

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We are constantly being told what we should be doing for our health: fasting, tracking our sleep, exercising more, cutting out certain foods, taking supplements, regulating our nervous system, improving our gut health…the list goes on.

But what happens when all those healthy habits actually start working against us?

In this episode, I explore something I see increasingly both online and in clinic: people doing all the right things for their health, yet feeling more stressed, more restricted and sometimes even worse than when they started.

I talk about why a health strategy that works brilliantly for one person may be completely wrong for another, and why even objectively “healthy” practices can become unhelpful when they stop matching what your body actually needs.

We look at everything from restrictive diets and gut health protocols to exercise, fasting, wearables and stress-management routines, and why more information doesn’t always lead to better health. In fact, sometimes the more data, rules and advice we accumulate, the further we move away from noticing our own responses.

Because your body is giving you information too.

The question is whether we are still listening to it.

In this episode, I discuss:

• Why healthy routines can sometimes make us feel worse rather than better
• How dietary restrictions can gradually become unnecessarily restrictive
• Why gut testing can be useful when it helps us personalise rather than guess
• How to recognise when your exercise intensity isn't right for your body
• Why stress-management practices shouldn't become another item on your stressful to-do list
• The influence of wellness trends, social media and conflicting health advice
• Why enjoying the things you do for your health actually matters
• How tracking and health data can be useful without allowing them to override how you feel
• Why reconnecting with your body's own signals can help you make better health decisions

Resources mentioned in this episode

SONA — nervous system support
I mention SONA in this episode as one of the tools I use to support nervous system regulation and stress management.

Find out more about SONA

Use code VJ10 for a discount.

This is an affiliate link, which means I may receive a small commission if you purchase through it, at no additional cost to you.

Gut Health Test — GI Effects
If you want to understand more about what may be happening in your gut rather than continually removing foods or guessing which intervention you need, you can also explore the comprehensive gut health test I offer. It includes the functional stool test alongside analysis and interpretation of your results.

Find out more about my Gut Health Test

📥 New to the podcast or need a starting point?
→ Download my free The Autoimmunity Recovery Plan
— a simple guide that outlines the steps I recommend to all clients as they begin calming the immune response and rebuilding resilience.

The information shared in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider.

Thanks for listening! You can join The Autoimmune Forum on Facebook or find me on Instagram @theautoimmunitynutritionist.

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What if supporting autoimmune health needs to start even deeper than the gut, hormones or immune system — at the level of the cell itself?

In this episode of The Autoimmune RESET, I’m joined by Jess Berman, co-owner of BodyBio, to explore the role cellular health plays in inflammation, immune function, energy and our overall resilience.

Jess shares her own health journey, including her experience with PCOS and Hashimoto’s, and how it shaped the way she thinks about nutrition and health today. We discuss why the integrity of our cell membranes matters, how modern diets and environmental exposures can affect cellular function, and why some of the nutrients we’ve been taught to fear — including omega-6 fatty acids — may deserve a more nuanced conversation.

We also get practical, talking about phospholipids, essential fatty acids, butyrate, minerals and hydration, alongside the foundational dietary and lifestyle changes that can make a meaningful difference before reaching for increasingly complex protocols.

In this episode, we cover:

• Jess’s personal experience with PCOS, Hashimoto’s and autoimmune health
• Why cellular health is an important piece of the autoimmune puzzle
• What cell membranes actually do and why their integrity matters
• Phospholipids and their role in cellular function
• Why omega-6 isn’t necessarily the inflammatory villain it has been made out to be
• The importance of balancing essential omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids
• Butyrate, the gut barrier and the connection between gut and immune health
• Minerals, electrolytes and why hydration is about more than simply drinking water
• Environmental exposures, oxidative stress and detoxification
• Why Jess believes in getting the foundations right before moving into more intensive protocols
• Practical places to start if you’re living with an autoimmune condition

If you’d like to explore some of the BodyBio products Jess and I discuss in this episode, including BodyBio PC, Balance Oil, Butyrate and e-Lyte, you can find them here:

UK: BodyBio UK
US: BodyBio

Use my code VJ15 for 15% off.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who has been searching for answers to seemingly unrelated symptoms.

📥 Ready for a more structured, personalised approach?
→ Apply to work with me
— we’ll create a clear, step-by-step plan tailored to your body, your symptoms, and your goals.

🧪 Want to understand what’s happening beneath the surface?
→ I use functional testing in clinic to assess gut health, nutrient status, and digestion — including markers related to bile flow, microbial balance, and inflammation.
You can explore the tests I use here:
https://theautoimmunitynutritionist.com/functional-testing/

📥 New to the podcast or need a starting point?
→ Download my free The Autoimmunity Recovery Plan
— a simple guide that outlines the steps I recommend

The information shared in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider.

Please note: these are affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission if you purchase through them, at no additional cost to you.

Thanks for listening! You can join The Autoimmune Forum on Facebook or find me on Instagram @theautoimmunitynutritionist.

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Have you ever felt like your symptoms don't quite fit together?

Perhaps you've struggled with IBS, migraines, chronic fatigue, dizziness, joint pain or food sensitivities, yet every symptom has been treated in isolation. What if they were all connected?

In this episode, I'm exploring the often-overlooked world of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders (HSD), and why being "double-jointed" is only a small part of the story.

We'll discuss how connective tissue influences almost every system in the body, why hypermobility can affect your gut, immune system and nervous system, and why so many people spend years searching for answers before receiving a diagnosis.

I also share why this topic has caught my attention recently, including reading Lena Dunham's memoir, where she describes how a reader recognised the signs of hypermobility after seeing a photograph of her bending her thumbs backwards. It's a powerful reminder that sometimes the clues have been there all along—we've just never been taught how to connect them.

We'll also look at the exciting changes coming to the diagnostic criteria for EDS and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders, and what these updates could mean for improving recognition and diagnosis in the future.

Finally, I'll share some practical ways to support connective tissue, the nervous system and overall health through nutrition and lifestyle, regardless of whether you have a diagnosis.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why EDS is about far more than flexible joints
• The overlooked signs and symptoms of hypermobility
• The connection between hypermobility, IBS, bloating and gut motility
• Why migraines, dizziness and fatigue may share a common thread
• The relationship between hypermobility, POTS and the autonomic nervous system
• Histamine, mast cells and why some people become increasingly reactive
• The upcoming changes to EDS and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder diagnostic criteria
• Nutrition and lifestyle strategies to support connective tissue health
• Why understanding patterns—not just individual symptoms—can transform your health journey

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who has been searching for answers to seemingly unrelated symptoms.

📥 Ready for a more structured, personalised approach?
→ Apply to work with me
— we’ll create a clear, step-by-step plan tailored to your body, your symptoms, and your goals.

🧪 Want to understand what’s happening beneath the surface?
→ I use functional testing in clinic to assess gut health, nutrient status, and digestion — including markers related to bile flow, microbial balance, and inflammation.
You can explore the tests I use here:
https://theautoimmunitynutritionist.com/functional-testing/

📥 New to the podcast or need a starting point?
→ Download my free The Autoimmunity Recovery Plan
— a simple guide that outlines the steps I recommend

The information shared in this episode is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace medical advice. Always consult your healthcare provider.

Thanks for listening! You can join The Autoimmune Forum on Facebook or find me on Instagram @theautoimmunitynutritionist.