Episode 15. Samantha Teague: From GERD to Hypogammaglobulinemia and beyond.

Samantha Teague used to work as a chef, lifting heavy sheet pans of food, dealing with the stress of it all and passionate about food and cooking.

The first signs of impending trouble were symptoms of GERD, followed by Fibromyalgia, that seemed to worsen whenever she ate something that contained gluten.

What do you do when food is your life and the very things you are creating and working with are making you sicker?

Samantha gave up flour based gluten foods but we all know that gluten is in everything and over time, her anxiety, lack of strength and energy and her increasing inability to handle the stress of leading a commercial kitchen meant looking for a job that she could manage a little better.

However, no matter what position she took on, the work still seemed way too stressful and her pain and anxiety was worsening. Eventually Samantha landed her “dream job” working as a private chef which was much less stressful and much more enjoyable. However as time went on, the anxiety got worse, the pain got worse and eventually, she had to stop working at all because it became way too much to manage.

Along the way Samantha had picked up diagnoses of adrenal fatigue, IgA deficiency and a few years later, Hashimoto’s. Yet as Samantha found treatments for each of the health challenges she was facing, it still didn’t seem to be getting her closer to feeling better.

She decided to dig a little deeper into the IgA deficiency diagnosis and was eventually discovered to have Hypogammaglobulinemia, an IgG deficiency that affects all of the mucosal membranes of the body, for which the only treatment was very expensive infusion therapy that even if she could get access to, may only be available for a couple of years at best.

So what did Samantha do next? Listen in to episode 15 of the Emotional Autoimmunity podcast to find out.

You can listen here on the blog or subscribe and listen on most popular podcast players.

Samantha Teague lives in Texas, USA with her partner, daughter and furbabes.

She is the blogger and recipe creator behind The Unskilled Cavewoman and also works as a Paleo Nutritional Coach and is currently studying for her Holistic Wellness Coach certification.

Samantha loves working with people who need help transitioning to or troubleshooting the Paleo and AIP diets and also uses Empowerment Training with her clients to help them discover personal fulfilment.

In her down time, Samantha loves to paint both physically and digitally and also enjoys urban exploration and portrait photography.