Shelly's Journey Through Meniere's Disease and the Healing Power of Nutritional Empowerment

To supplement or not to supplement, that is the question. As your mentor along this wellness journey, Shelly shares her personal health challenge with a Meniere's disease diagnosis and the severe bouts of vertigo that accompanied her diagnosis. After years of treatments that included allergy shots to medications to a mild surgery, it wasn't until Shelly supplemented her nutrition that she ultimately found relief. Her story of a very debilitating health challenge, isn't necessarily a unique one, however, it is an important reminder for us all to examine ways we can improve our overall health and many times one simple change or addition can make all the difference. In Shelly's case, it was certainly an answer to her prayers as you will hear her share her personal experience that led her on a path of relief and ultimate health & vitality.

In a transformative chapter of her life, the embrace of high-quality nutritional supplements became the answer to her prayers. Through this episode, she shares how chronic health conditions are many times directly related to a deficiency of essential minerals. Through her personal and professional experience, Shelly firmly shares that supplementation is no longer an option but a critical step in anyone's health & wellness journey. As she completes this episode, she reminds her listeners that she is always open to answering questions and exploring with them the profound impact that diet and lifestyle changes can have, as she offers support and resources that go beyond the episode. If your heart is set on a wellness transformation, always feel free to reach out to Shelly through her contact information in the show notes below and continue listening and growing along this  "Words of Wellness" journey with Shelly by your side!

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Thank you for listening to the Words of Wellness podcast with Shelly Jefferis. I am honored and so grateful to have you here and it would mean the world to me if you could take a minute to follow, leave a 5-star review and share the podcast with anyone you love and anyone you feel could benefit from the message.

Thank you and God Bless!
And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day!

In Health,
Shelly Jefferis

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Do you get confused by all of the information that bombards us every day on ways to improve our overall health and our overall wellness? Do you often feel stuck, unmotivated or struggle to reach your wellness goals? Do you have questions as to what exercises you should be doing, what foods you should or should not be eating, how to improve your overall emotional and mental well-being? Hello everyone, I am so excited to welcome you to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelley Jeffries and I will be your host. My goal is to answer these questions and so much more to share tips, education and inspiration around all of the components of wellness through solo and guest episodes. With 35 plus years as a health and wellness professional, a retired college professor, a speaker and a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I certainly have lots to share. However, my biggest goal and inspiration in doing this podcast is to share the wellness stories of others with you, to bring in guests who can share their journeys so that we can all learn together while making an impact on the health, the wellness and lives of all of you, our listeners. The ultimate hope is that you leave today with even just one nugget that can enhance the quality of your life, and that you will. We all will, now and into the future, live our best quality of lives, full of energy, happiness and joy. Now let's dive into our message for today. Hello everyone, and welcome back to Words of Wellness.

Speaker 1: 1:35

My name is Shelly and I am your host, and I wanted to jump in today and kind of piggyback on the episode that we put out last week that was really centered around biohacking, and I came across a comment earlier today about supplementation, and the question that someone asked was what are the supplements that you all are taking? And one of the comments said unless you're basically eating junk food every day, you don't need to supplement. And so I thought I would do a short episode on this topic basically to supplement or not to supplement and I'm going to share my own personal story with all of you and my journey when it comes to supplementation. And you know, last week we published an episode that was really centered around biohacking and biohacking really became a part of my life, my routine, almost 10 years ago. I want to share a little bit of a backstory of what I had been dealing with when it came to my own personal health kind of dealing with when it came to my own personal health and really truly through all of my years. Thankfully, I never had or have had any real health issues to speak of.

Speaker 1: 3:17

And one morning actually it was during the day years ago when my Brayden was a newborn he and I were rocking in the rocking chair, taking a little nap and all of a sudden I became very, very dizzy and I had no idea what was going on. Somehow I was able to make it into our bedroom with him. I laid down on the bed, contacted my family my husband had taken the older kids out for a little bit that day and they came home and the dizziness had passed by then. But I didn't know what had caused it and I really didn't think too much about it. And then it happened two, three more times without any kind of warning. And one of the times it was probably the third time that it occurred was actually during one of our Stroller Strides classes, and back then I had the local franchise for the business where we would exercise outdoors, moms and babies, and we were on our walk. And in our neighborhood we have these paseos, these pathways all throughout our neighborhood. And this particular morning we were doing our walk and all of a sudden it's as if the pathway just shifted and rotated to the left. Everything went slanted, went slanted and I was so dizzy and I ended up sitting down on a curb again not knowing what was going on. Thank God, one of the moms was able to load the kids up in her car and take care of them, while my best friend came and picked me up and took me to the hospital.

Speaker 1: 5:22

And I had a series of tests that were done and everything came out fine. They couldn't find anything. So what I ended up doing was I went to an ENT ear, nose and throat doctor and eventually I was diagnosed with Meniere's disease and it got to a point where he really couldn't care for me any longer. I was still having episodes and he said I'm going to refer you to the House Ear Clinic in downtown Los Angeles. Some of you might be familiar with that location. It's a renowned location, very, very well known Some of the best doctors and surgeons in the world when it comes to your ear and any issues with your ear. So that's where I started going and they did not really know the cause.

Speaker 1: 6:23

I believe they still don't really know the cause of Meniere's, but through a process of elimination they decided to do some allergy testing on me and I went through some tests and it came back that I was supposedly allergic to certain environmental like grass, leaves, certain trees, certain bushes, you know just things out in the environment. And also they showed that I was allergic to dogs and cats, which I thought was really, really strange, since I had always had dogs and cats my entire life and up until this point I had never really had any issue, that I thought, with allergies. So they put me on allergy shots and they also put me on a medication, hydrochlorothiazide, which was given to me to help eliminate some of the fluids in my body, because the belief was and this could be what was happening that fluid would build up in my ear and it would press on what's called the endolymph sac and that would then cause the dizziness, that would cause the vertigo. So they gave me this medication To counteract that medication. They gave me also a to counteract that medication. They gave me also a prescription for potassium right, because now they're giving me a medication to get fluids out of my system, but they wanted to make sure that my potassium levels were at the correct level. So then I started to take that as well.

Speaker 1: 8:02

So I started on this journey of giving myself allergy shots, taking these medications, and I would go down to the house air clinic regularly for checkups for hearing tests and I continued this for years and I didn't always know when I would have an attack and I would have a vertigo attack that was so severe I would be vomiting on the bathroom floor. I would be so sick and then I would have to lay there after I was done. I could not move my head. If I moved my head, I was vomiting, and once it would finally pass, it would literally take me hours, sometimes through the next day, to recover. It was almost like if any of you have experienced this, it's like you're recovering from the flu. It takes a good solid day or two to get back to feeling normal and have your energy back. And I dealt with this for years and it got to be so bad that I didn't know when I would have an attack. I would always be paranoid. If I started to feel a little bit off, I think, oh my gosh, am I going to have a vertigo attack? So it was really awful, to say the least, and it got to a point that I was having more days of not feeling good and having vertigo than I was having good days, and this was now we're talking about.

Speaker 1: 9:47

This was about seven or eight years, in that I opted to have a very mildly invasive surgery, where the doctor went in, went into my in my ear, and the thought was that you would cauterize the indolent sac so that it wouldn't be able to fill up with fluid and so, therefore, it would prevent the vertigo from happening. I went in and I had this surgery October 2013,. The fall of 2013. And I remember that it did help to the degree that I was not having very severe attacks any longer. So thank god for that, though the severe attacks stopped.

Speaker 1: 10:36

However, I would, once in a while, still have some dizziness, and it was still very concerning for me, really unnerving, to know that. You know I could be out anywhere, I could be driving, I could be anywhere in public, and I will tell you that before, once it started to get so bad, before I had the surgery, there were a couple of times where I almost fell over. It came on so strong. It almost, I almost fell over, and I remember I'll never forget just looking at my husband and just with desperation because I just I didn't know what to do. I had tried everything. I had tried everything, and so I opted for this mild kind of the first level of surgery and, like I said, it did help. It did help, but I was still having a little bit of dizziness and a little bit of these symptoms, but they weren't as severe, but they were still happening.

Speaker 1: 11:37

So, fast forward, a few months later, I reached out to a friend of mine regarding some nutritional supplements and I just asked her what was she using? I wanted to know more and I decided I wanted to give these supplements a try. Now, a little bit of a backstory on that. Because of my background and my profession, I had always tried various companies and products when it came to supplementation, because I would have clients and I would have students asking me what I recommended and I never could really point out one specific product that I felt like this is the one. And what I knew was, if I ever was to use another product again, I was looking for something that did not have any artificial ingredients, it did not have any artificial sweeteners, it was free from chemicals and pesticides. And that is what I had, because a few years prior I had tried some products from my company and all of their nutritional products had artificial sweeteners and artificial ingredients, and I did not want that. So I was really just curious.

Speaker 1: 12:54

At this point, I thought, let me give this a try and, honestly, within three days I felt different. My energy felt different and, mind you, I always felt like I was pretty healthy, pretty energetic. Everything was really great with my health, with the exception of the Meniere's disease, with the exception of the vertigo. So I put these supplements in my body and within weeks I had a checkup at the House Ear Clinic and I will never forget walking out the doors of the clinic feeling amazing and just saying I am never going to be back here. And guess what? I have never, ever been back. I am so thankful to God, I'm just so thankful that my symptoms pretty much disappeared. And I want to tell you that, when it comes to supplementation and products, I'm not making any health claims, but I do know that when you get the nourishment in your body that it needs, when you do get the proper vitamins and minerals that your body needs and your body is able to absorb them and utilize them at the cellular level and utilize them at the cellular level. Amazing things happen and amazing things happened for me. So I struggled with vertigo for eight years of my life. I would not wish it upon anyone. However, I am close to 10 years of celebrating no symptoms and I am always eternally grateful for that. I am so grateful and I share this story.

Speaker 1: 14:55

To make a point, two reasons. When it comes to supplementation, I used to, years and years ago, when I would lecture to my students about nutrition, I would tell them it's a very personal choice. I'm not going to tell you that you have to supplement or that you should. It's everyone's personal choice. That was something that I told them years and years ago. Now I will say it is not an option, it is a necessity. With the low level of nutrition that is in our current food supply, it is a necessity to supplement. With the depletion of our soils, it is a necessity to supplement of our soils. It is a necessity to supplement. With all of the chemicals and pesticides and toxins that we are exposed to daily, it is a necessity to supplement.

Speaker 1: 15:57

So I wanted to hop in here and just again piggyback on the episode that we shared last week that was related to biohacking and detoxing and just overall health and wellness. And I wanted to share my story and my journey. And I just thought about that today, especially after I saw the comment today regarding supplementation. And I am a very strong believer and proponent, not just because of my education but because of research I have done and because of my personal experience, that supplementation is critical. Nowadays it's not an option. And again, when I can sit here and say from my experience, it literally changed my life, it literally changed my life and I know not everyone's experiences are the same, for sure, but with all of the knowledge that I have now and what I learned many years ago, it's no longer an option. And so I wanted to just hop in here, share my personal journey with you all, share my story journey with you all, share my story.

Speaker 1: 17:28

And it's not to say that if you are experiencing vertigo, that when you start to supplement your diet, that everything is going to be perfect. I am not saying that. I am sharing with you my personal experience and my personal journey. And when I had results like I did, even my doctor said that I was probably lacking at the cellular level some particular mineral or minerals, and that all changed once I put my nutritional products in my body. Once I put my nutritional products in my body and I have been free of vertigo ever since. So I just share that with you all to make the point that many things that we are experiencing many of the illnesses, if not most and diseases chronic illnesses most of them can be traced back to a mineral deficiency Many, if not most, if not quite all of them, quite frankly. So when we have mineral deficiencies and we are also exposed to so many toxins in our food, in our water, in the air we breathe, in our cleaning products, in the products we put on our skin, it's really an uphill battle. I encourage you, if you have not tried certain supplements or have gotten into biohacking, I encourage you to have an open mind and seek some high quality, absorbable supplements out that you can try.

Speaker 1: 19:23

And, of course, I'm not a medical doctor, but again, I am sharing my experience professionally and personally, and I would not wish vertigo on anyone and when I see or hear about someone who has experienced it, I mean my heart drops for them. For those of you who might be listening to this and maybe you've experienced it yourselves, you know what I'm talking about. And again, I had it randomly for a while and then it started to creep up more frequently for a while and then it started to creep up more frequently and then it would just be frequent and then very severe bouts of it that I, I just, I could hardly, I couldn't. I had less days that I was functioning, feeling good, than I had the days that I was bad. So again, that's the journey for me and that's the experience that I had, and you know, if you have any questions whatsoever, please always feel free to reach out. You can email me, you can DM me on Instagram. I'm happy to answer any questions. I'm happy to share with you some of the protocols that I follow.

Speaker 1: 20:45

But you know, it was very, very telling for me when I started to make the transition, I started to use certain nutritional products and supplemented. You know what I was doing at the time and and, mind you, I had been doing some supplementation for sure it just was not the high quality that my body needed and I had gone through so many different tests and tried so many different things to help with the vertigo and nothing, nothing worked until I put these particular products in my body. And, like I say that that was almost 10 years ago and it was such an exhilarating feeling as you can imagine to walk away from that house ear clinic that day, knowing I would never be back and I haven't been and also to stop all of the medication, all of the allergy shots. And you know, for a long time I questioned whether or not it was really helping, but I had that fear that what if? What if? I stopped doing all of this and the vertigo gets even worse and that's kind of what kept me like almost chained to doing it regularly. And then I just gradually cut back on the allergy shots. I gradually eliminated them all entirely and they gradually cut back on the medication and have never gone back. So that is my story, my journey. You know my prayers were answered. I mean, I thank God all of the time that I don't deal with that any longer and I'm super grateful that that chapter of my life I don't have that any longer.

Speaker 1: 22:38

And, like I said, I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have or perhaps you're experiencing it yourself. You just need someone to talk to. Please feel free to jump into my DMs and message me. I'm happy to share, I'm happy to be a support for you and I hope you find some value in this today and I really truly want to encourage you if if you're, you know, maybe experiencing some symptoms or you're maybe not feeling as great as an energetic as you think you could or should, and you know, the crazy thing is is we don't always know how good we can feel until we do.

Speaker 1: 23:23

And I was that person. I felt I'm pretty healthy, I'm energetic, but let me try these products and I'm telling you, I even had more energy and felt even better, and I had no idea how much better I could feel. So we don't always know. Sometimes we just don't realize how much better I could feel. So we don't always know. Sometimes we just don't realize how much better we could feel. And it was very interesting for me because, like I said, I felt pretty good, I thought I was pretty healthy, I thought I was pretty energetic and I think for the average person I was, but then I got to feeling even better and, on top of that, my symptoms disappeared.

Speaker 1: 24:03

So again, to supplement or not to supplement, I will always say this day and age, it's critical that you supplement and seek a medical provider. And seek a medical provider, seek out someone who can make recommendations for you and, like I said, feel free to reach out to me. I can share what I have done and I hope that you find value in this episode and continue to take steps to be your healthiest. And I encourage you to take time out for you on this day for your wellness journey and feel free to share this episode with anyone who you think could find value and benefit in the information. And also I want to remind everyone that I have added in the show notes some different links to different products that I use on a regular basis and I also have included my link to my Purge your Pantry sessions where I go with an individual through Zoom. We go through your pantry, we go through your refrigerator. I look at what you have. I help you make some healthy swap ideas for some healthier choices for snacks and food choices.

Speaker 1: 25:36

So the link is in the show notes. If that's something that you feel would benefit you, please feel free to click on. The link is in the show notes. If that's something that you feel would benefit you, please feel free to click on the link and, as always, enjoy the rest of your day, have a beautiful, blessed week and until next time. Do something for you and your wellness on this day and have a wonderful day. Everyone. See you next time.

Speaker 1: 26:05

Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope you gained value and enjoyed our time together as much as I did, and if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode, I would love and appreciate it if you could share with a friend or rate and review words of wellness so that more can hear this message. I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for listening and if you have any questions or topics you would like me to share in future episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out to me through my contact information that is shared in the show notes below. Again, thank you for tuning in to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries and I encourage you to do something for you, for your wellness, on this day. Until next time, I hope you all have a healthy, happy and blessed week. Thank you you.