Heal Thyself Emporium, Inc

05/16/2026

05/15/2026

Stop and say hi to my assistant, Jessica at the Loose Caboose festival in downtown Paragould today. She has some awesome deals on supplements today!

05/14/2026

05/14/2026

Cell danger response in Boise! And I forgot to mention in the video, of course I’m increasing Bowel Mover IYKYK 😅 #

05/09/2026

Fear not!
They control you with fear.
They weaken your immune system with fear.
They make you sick with fear.
Rebuke all of this insanity.

01/12/2026

Tales from a Chronic Starvation Dieter

I have practiced starvation dieting since I was 12 years old.

Not intentionally starving… just constantly eating less than my body needed because that’s what women were taught to do. Smaller portions. Lean protein. Low fat. Diet drinks full of harmful artificial sweeteners.

Did I ever hit my weight goals? Sure, once or twice. But I also struggled with thyroid issues, hormonal issues, PCOS, chronic illness, and autoimmune issues.

Here’s what I see over and over again in practice now:
The biggest metabolic issue women have isn’t overeating. It’s chronic under-eating.

When you consistently fail to fuel your body, your thyroid adapts. Your metabolism downshifts. Your lymphatic system slows. Your hormones conserve instead of thrive.

Then menopause hits. 🫣

And everyone blames menopause…when in reality, many women are entering it already metabolically broken from decades of starvation dieting.

Two years ago, I changed everything.

I stopped fearing red meat.
I embraced animal fat.
I ate real breakfasts like this one.
And my body responded immediately.

My lymphatic system started draining properly. My energy stabilized. My body composition changed. My nervous system felt safer. Most of my chronic issues went into remission. I felt good. I had energy. And my weight was actually decreasing.

But healing isn’t linear.

Last year, without intending to, I slipped back into starvation mode, simply because life got busy, overwhelming, and relentless. I was also battling depression, and for the first time in my life, I genuinely had no desire to eat. No hunger cues. No appetite. Just survival mode. And once again, my body felt the consequences.

That experience reminded me just how quickly a woman’s body will adapt to scarcity and how unforgiving it can be when fuel is removed again.

Now, I’m consciously returning to the way I ate when I was thriving, because I’ve lived the difference. I know what under-fueling does to a woman’s body, and I know what happens when you give it what it actually needs.

My new years promise to myself was intentionally returning to eating 1,700–2,000 calories a day, with a minimum of 120g of protein, because my body (and yours) cannot heal, detox, or regulate hormones without adequate fuel.

Food is not the enemy.
Protein is not the problem.
Fat is not what broke you.

Starving your body did.

This plate isn’t indulgence.
It’s my restoration….and I couldn’t finish it! 😅 But I ate all I could and thats better than I was doing last month.

Shout out to Eggcellent Cafe in Jonesboro for this amazing meal. I’ll definitely be back.

12/13/2025

I had a few moments to scroll Facebook the other day, something I rarely have time to do lately, and what stood out to me wasn’t one specific post, but a pattern.

EDS.
POTS.
Chronic fatigue syndrome.
Long COVID.
Chronic Epstein-Barr.

Post after post of people talking about “my chronic illness.”

And I found myself thinking:
We are naming the symptoms… but we are missing the root.

I say this as someone who just came out of months in Cell Danger Response myself, and who is now actively pulling myself back from another crash.

My immune system dropped below a viable threshold and crossed into true immunocompromised territory. Not because I didn’t “know better,” but because knowing and doing are not always the same thing, especially when you’re trying to hold space for clients, family, work, and life seven days a week.

I tell people every day to slow down.
To nourish their bodies.
To protect their energy.

And yes, I am often my worst patient.
(I’m in therapy for that. For real.)

What pulled me back wasn’t a new diagnosis or a new label. It was restoring energy.

Here’s what I’ve done the last month:
A very aggressive full moon cleanse.
Massive mineral repletion with fulvic and other mineral complexes.
Oxytocin therapy.
Deep energetic work.
Setting boundaries.
And finally honoring the reality that I cannot outwork biology.

Here’s what I want people to understand:

Most “chronic illnesses” are not separate diseases.

They are different expressions of the same underlying problem: ATP depletion.

ATP is the energy currency of every cell in your body:
Every nerve signal.
Every immune response.
Every digestive contraction.
Every detox pathway.

No ATP = no function.

When the body perceives threat, infection, toxin load, emotional trauma, and chronic stress, it enters what’s known as the Cell Danger Response [1]. Survival becomes the priority. And survival is expensive.

The two most ATP-hungry systems in the body are the immune system and the digestive system. They can not run at full capacity at the same time.

When the immune system is activated, digestion slows or shuts down [2].
That’s why you lose your appetite when you’re “coming down with something.”
That crushing fatigue isn’t weakness — it’s energy reallocation [3].

But here’s the part almost no one talks about:

Once ATP drops below a certain threshold, the body can no longer build the very mitochondria required to make more ATP [4].

At that point, you’re not tired because you’re doing too much.
You’re tired because your body cannot generate energy even at rest.

And this is where people get stuck.

We chase diagnoses.
We collect labels.
We argue over whether it’s POTS or EDS or EBV or Long COVID.

But underneath the name is the same reality:
The cell’s energy budget has collapsed.

So how did we get here?

Mitochondria are not magic.
They require massive amounts of minerals to function like magnesium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, selenium, iodine, sulfur, and more [5].

We have stripped our soils for decades.
We grow food fast, not nutrient dense.
Calories are abundant.
Minerals are NOT.

You can eat enough food and still be starving at the cellular level [6].

What used to take decades of depletion, I am now seeing in children.

Metabolic dysfunction.
Immune dysregulation.
Neurological symptoms.
Gut shutdown.

That’s not genetics. That’s environment.

Healing does not start with chasing another diagnosis. It starts with restoring energy.

Feeding mitochondria.
Rebuilding mineral reserves.
Supporting the nervous system.
Respecting the body’s energy economy.

When ATP comes back online, the body remembers how to heal. The body has ENERGY to heal.

And sometimes, even practitioners need to be reminded of that too.



Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material and are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

References

[1] Naviaux, R. K. (2014). Metabolic features of the cell danger response. Mitochondrion, 16, 7–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mito.2013.08.006

[2] Pavlov, V. A., & Tracey, K. J. (2017). Neural regulation of immunity: Molecular mechanisms and clinical translation. Nature Neuroscience, 20(2), 156–166. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4477

[3] Dantzer, R., O’Connor, J. C., Freund, G. G., Johnson, R. W., & Kelley, K. W. (2008). From inflammation to sickness and depression: When the immune system subjugates the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(1), 46–56. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2297

[4] Wallace, D. C. (2012). Mitochondria and cancer. Nature Reviews Cancer, 12(10), 685–698. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3365

[5] DiNicolantonio, J. J., & O’Keefe, J. H. (2018). Magnesium in man: Implications for health and disease. Open Heart, 5(2), e000668. https://doi.org/10.1136/openhrt-2017-000668

[6] Davis, D. R., Epp, M. D., & Riordan, H. D. (2004). Changes in USDA food composition data for 43 garden crops, 1950–1999. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 23(6), 669–682. https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.2004.10719409

12/12/2025

The Science Behind The “Woo”
- Why Energy Work Matters

Most people are taught to think of the body as purely physical: muscles, organs, labs, diagnoses. But long before symptoms show up in tissue or bloodwork, dysfunction shows up in the energetic nervous system.

That’s where modalities like acupuncture, specialized kinesiology, Reiki, and sound/frequency healing come in.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture works by restoring the flow of Qi (the Chinese word for energy or life force) through meridians that directly interface with the nervous system, immune system, circulation, and organ function. When energy stagnates, the nervous system stays locked in fight-or-flight, inflammation rises, and healing stalls. [1–4]

Through my training in specialized kinesiology that includes Touch for Health, Stress Indicator Point Systems (SIPS), Kinergetics, MNRI, and others, I’ve seen this firsthand the impact energy work has on restoring health and removing blocks to healing. Muscle testing isn’t mystical; it’s neurological. The body responds instantly to stressors long before the conscious mind catches up. The Qest4 scan is also called a meridian stress assessment tool because it operates within this area of the body as well. These energetic systems help identify where the nervous system is dysregulated, where stress is stored, and what the body actually needs to return to balance. [5–6]

Acupuncture, Reiki and sound/frequency healing work on the same principle: regulating the autonomic nervous system, improving coherence, and shifting the body out of survival mode so repair mechanisms can turn back on. This isn’t “woo;” it’s bioelectricity, frequency, and resonance. Every cell communicates electrically. Every nerve fires through energy. Ignore that layer, and you’re only treating part of the problem. [7–10]

Research continues to show that acupuncture and related energetic therapies influence autonomic nervous system balance, vagal tone, stress hormone regulation, pain perception, and inflammatory signaling. [1–4, 7–9]

In other words, the energetic body is the bridge between the mind, nervous system, and physical tissue.

Most chronic illness doesn’t persist because the body doesn’t want to heal; it persists because the nervous system doesn’t feel safe enough to release the energetic blockages and trauma trapped in the fascia and tissues.

When you address the energetic layer, the physical body often follows.

This is why true healing is never just biochemical. It’s neurological. It’s electrical. It’s energetic. And it’s been overlooked for far too long.



References:

[1] Hui, K. K. S., et al. (2000). Acupuncture modulates the limbic system and subcortical gray structures of the human brain: Evidence from fMRI studies. Human Brain Mapping, 9(1), 13–25.

[2] Napadow, V., et al. (2007). Acupuncture decreases sympathetic nervous system activity and increases parasympathetic activity in healthy subjects. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 13(4), 409–414.

[3] Kavoussi, B., & Ross, B. E. (2007). The neuroimmune basis of anti-inflammatory acupuncture. Integrative Cancer Therapies, 6(3), 251–257.

[4] Takahashi, T. (2011). Acupuncture for functional gastrointestinal disorders. Journal of Gastroenterology, 46(7), 743–755.

[5] Goodheart, G. J. (1988). Applied kinesiology research manuals. Detroit, MI: Privately published.

[6] Walther, D. S. (2000). Applied kinesiology: Synopsis (2nd ed.). Pueblo, CO: Systems DC.

[7] Baldwin, A. L., et al. (2010). The effect of Reiki on autonomic nervous system activity. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 16(9), 989–997.

[8] McCraty, R., et al. (2009). The coherent heart: Heart–brain interactions, psychophysiological coherence, and the emergence of system-wide order. Integral Review, 5(2), 10–115.

[9] Oschman, J. L. (2000). Energy medicine: The scientific basis. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

[10] Thayer, J. F., & Lane, R. D. (2009). Claude Bernard and the heart–brain connection: Further elaboration of a model of neurovisceral integration. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 33(2), 81–88.