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Dhru Purohit Show

#247: An Unconventional Path to Treating Autoimmune Disease with Dr. Cynthia Li

Dhru Purohit Show

Dhru Purohit

Alternative Health, Medicine, Health & Fitness

4.73.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2021

⏱️ 93 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

An Unconventional Path to Treating Autoimmune Disease | This episode is brought to you by Vivobarefoot and Cozy Earth Dr. Cynthia Li seemingly had it all—a successful career in medicine, a loving marriage, and children. But it all came crashing down after developing an autoimmune thyroid condition, chronic fatigue syndrome, and dysautonomia. Mysterious symptoms began consuming her body—test after test came back “within” normal limits,” baffling her and her doctors. She was housebound for two years with two young children, and she began a solo odyssey from her living room couch to find a way to heal.  In this episode of The Dhru Purohit Podcast, Dhru sits down with Dr. Cynthia Li to talk about her disabling autoimmune illness, the limitations of Western medicine, and her hard-won lessons on healing—mind, body, and spirit. Dr. Cynthia Li received her medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Her personal health challenges led her to integrative and Functional Medicine, and she currently has a private practice in Berkeley, CA. She serves on the faculty of the Healer’s Art program at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, and she is the author of Brave New Medicine: A Doctor’s Unconventional Path to Healing Her Autoimmune Illness. In this episode, we dive into:  -How Dr. Li came to discover her autoimmune disease (5:56) -The importance of not being attached to one healing modality (12:53) -How Dr. Li’s mindset was a big obstruction to seeking alternative help (18:06) -Why we have to distance ourselves from our diagnosis (33:22) -One of the first things Dr. Li did to heal her illness (39:35)  -How Dr. Li learned to tune into her own intuition and use it to guide her (43:19) -Key pillars that were crucial in Dr. Li’s healing (55:55)  -The impact qigong had on her healing journey (59:01) -Hitting rock bottom for the second time (1:00:34) -Dr. Li’s qigong practice (1:12:33) For more on Dr. Cynthia Li follow her on Facebook @dr.cynthia.li and through her website https://cynthialimd.com/. Get her book Brave New Medicine at https://cynthialimd.com/brave-new-medicine/. This episode is brought to you by Vivobarefoot and Cozy Earth. Vivobarefoot footwear is designed to be wide, thin, and flexible, so you feel as close to barefoot as possible. They promote your foot's natural strength and movement and studies show that foot strength increases by 60% in a matter of months just by walking around in them. Right now they’re offering my community 20% off their first order at vivobarefoot.com/DHRU.   If you’re looking for super comfortable and stylish men’s and women’s pajamas, joggers, robes, pullovers and hoodies, basically all the stuff we’re all wearing working from home these days, Cozy Earth has got you covered! So what’s Cozy Earth’s not so secret fabric that powers their superior comfort? It's the miracle plant bamboo! Right now, Cozy Earth is offering my audience 40% off. Just head over to cozyearth.com and use the discount code DHRUPODCAST. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Anything that we identify with and I will say positive or negative keeps us actually very attached

0:07.7

to that. It keeps us actually more in that fixed state instead of the state of dynamic change

0:14.8

and healing has really changed. Hi everyone, Drew Prod here. Today we're talking with Dr. Cynthia

0:20.1

Lee about the approach that she took to heal her autoimmune condition. If you're curious or you're

0:28.3

interested in the topic of autoimmune and you're open to new approaches and things like energy

0:34.3

medicine, this episode is for you. So while back I was talking to my dear friend Dr. Rungan

0:41.2

Chatterjee about this persistent knee pain that I was experiencing which was super weird because I

0:46.7

stretch regularly and I work out at least a few times a week with a big focus on mobility.

0:51.8

Now Dr. Chatterjee asked me a super simple question. He said could your shoes be causing the problem?

1:00.4

That simple but profound question opened an entire rabbit hole for me around the idea that our

1:05.8

footwear should conform to our feet not the other way around and that's when I discovered

1:12.5

vivo barefoot the minimalist footwear company. Vivo barefoot is unique because it was created

1:19.5

from the concept that the human foot is a biomechanical masterpiece and when left to its own devices it

1:26.0

can thrive but by cramming our feet into modern shoes we are really messing with our feet strength

1:33.0

and function which can have a whole stream of cascading effects. In my case it was the chronic

1:39.3

knee pain that I was experiencing even though I had top of the line sneakers. So I switched to

1:44.5

vivo barefoot and I never look back and get this within two weeks my chronic knee pain completely

1:51.0

went away. How crazy is that? What I love about vivo barefoot is that it was designed to be

1:56.9

wide thin and flexible so you feel as close to barefoot as possible but with a ton of comfort.

2:04.6

They promote your foot's natural strength and movement and studies have shown that foot strength

2:10.3

increases by 60% in a matter of just months just by walking around in them. I honestly can't

2:17.5

recommend these shoes enough and I'm so thankful I found them. Right now vivo barefoot is offering

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