The Chronic Truth

Kenneth Kabagambe founded Uganda's National Organization for People Living with Hepatitis B after watching a friend die of a disease nobody around him had heard of, and then being diagnosed himself. In 13 years, he has secured government funding, free birth dose vaccination for every newborn in Uganda, a Triple Elimination Conference for Africa, and ongoing advocacy at the highest levels of health...

Dwayne Wilson was born with Pompe disease and didn't find out until he was 50 years old, when he couldn't climb a staircase, couldn't get off the toilet, and felt like someone was standing on his chest in a swimming pool. Eight years later, he's on biweekly infusion #194, rolled his Dolphin-stickered electric wheelchair to 14 Anaheim Ducks games this season, and posted a laser show video that got...

Dr. Edward Kondrot was a conventional eye surgeon until adult-onset asthma and the tremors caused by his medication forced him to find another way. Homeopathy cured his asthma. It also changed who he was as a doctor. Now he integrates homeopathy, microcurrent stimulation, and whole-person care into his ophthalmology practice and gives away his bestselling book for free because no book helps anyone...

Jenny Jones is back, and a lot has changed. Since her last visit, she lost her mother to FAP complications, launched Life's Apolyp Foundation as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit, and is correcting the record on something she got wrong last time: FAP is not just a colon disease. It's a whole-body condition that can show up in the eyes, skin, teeth, liver, and more, and the gaps in that understanding are del...

Mara Fowler has lived with multiple sclerosis for 26 years, diagnosed just after her 21st birthday, after being misdiagnosed with complex migraines. She's been through plasmapheresis, eight and a half months of not walking, seizures, a torn labrum, and the kind of cognitive decline that quietly dismantles the life you built. She joins Kim Nash, who is currently going through the McDonald MS diagno...

Jesus Guillen has been an HIV survivor for 41 years since 1985, when a nurse at UCLA told him he was positive and walked out. He arrived in the U.S. in 1984 with no papers, no community, and no roadmap. What he built in the decades that followed Aguilas in San Francisco, the HIV Long-Term Survivors International Network, a global speaking career, and an Emmy-winning documentary came from the same...

Lara Silverman was two weeks into her dream job as a federal prosecutor when a rare neurological condition turned her world literally upside down. Eight years later, she's still largely bedridden with severe chronic vertigo, a widow, and the author of Singing Through Fire — an Amazon #1 bestseller she wrote flat on her back in six months. Her story includes a love story with a man facing terminal...

Chelcie Rice has had Type 1 diabetes since the late 1980s, diagnosed at 25, with no technology, no community, and a pamphlet for guidance. By 2005, he'd lost vision in one eye. Instead of retreating, he built a platform using comedy and storytelling to break the stigma and reach the people who are still navigating it alone. He joins Kim Nash to talk about diabetes burnout, the landmines inside onl...

Eric Butcher was told to get his affairs in order at 38. He had cirrhosis, Alpha-1 Antitrypsin deficiency, and five years. That was 15 years ago. His MELD score has dropped from 15 to 8 through lifestyle changes, community, and getting off medications that were quietly compounding the damage. Now he's built The Prepared Patient, a navigation framework for chronic illness patients who are tired of...

Jason Jepson was 19 when he had a psychotic break at an Army base in the Mojave Desert. He's 45 now, living independently, volunteering, writing a blog cited by academic journals, and traveling to Portugal with his family. His mother, Maye, is a trained counselor who became an expert in schizoaffective disorder overnight, started a Facebook group called Parenting Through Mental Illness , and train...

Dean Graves has spent 20+ years teaching one idea: the condition of the body is a manifestation of the mind. As a meditation teacher, mental health counselor, and author, he works with veterans, trauma patients, and chronic pain sufferers who are ready to stop fighting their bodies and start understanding them. This conversation covers consciousness, the ego mind, how stress works as a teacher, an...

Ruthy spent years being dismissed before passing out from pain and finally landing in the office of a surgeon whose bio said: If you're in pain, please come see me. The MRI showed seven internal organs fused. She built The Yellow Hub: a global specialist map with over half a million views so no one else would have to find the right doctor by accident. Now, as co-founder of Ma Pott Health, she's br...

Lorrinda Gray-Davis went from managing billion-dollar construction projects to crash-landing in an ER with end-stage liver disease, then inoperable liver cancer, then a high-risk transplant that was only possible because of clinical trials. As president of TRIO and vice chair of OPTN's Patient Affairs Committee, she's turned that journey into systems that actually help: a peer-to-peer transplant s...

When chronic illness enters a relationship, it doesn't ask permission, and no one gives you a manual for what comes next. Lisa Gray is a licensed marriage and family therapist, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome patient, and author of Thriving in a Relationship When You Have a Chronic Illness . She joins Kim Nash to talk about why both partners are grieving (just differently), how to stop fighting each other...

Dr. Bruce Gillis spent over a decade proving what too many doctors still refuse to accept: fibromyalgia is a real, diagnosable immune deficiency — not a made-up condition affecting neurotic women. His FM1 blood test, covered by Medicare and most major insurers, gives patients a definitive rule-in diagnosis. His supplement Imbix targets the gut-brain axis and has helped people off wheelchairs, off...

Eileen Flynn Wagner survived five Hep C treatments, a near-fatal liver failure, and a transplant she almost didn't live to receive, and eight years later, she's still navigating the aftermath. Her kidneys are now at 20% function, she gets stents replaced every three months, and she carries a partially collapsed lung she's never once felt. She joins Kim Nash to speak candidly about why a combined k...

At 14, Allany Muniz had her first seizure right before freshman year of high school. During basketball tryouts, she had another—and became known as "the seizure girl" for the rest of high school. Years of severe depression, suppressed trauma, and silence followed until a fractured ankle in November 2020 left her bedridden with visions in her head that wouldn't stop. She started filming videos (sti...

Your treatment plan is decided before you walk into the doctor's office by an insurance actuary in another city who limits your doctor to 12 drugs. Dr. Kevin Smith, founder of Chronic Condition Center, has spent 25 years proving functional medicine works differently: asking why instead of chasing symptoms, testing 10 thyroid markers instead of just TSH, and investigating toxic load, hormone imbala...

Kim Nash was the first baby born to a kidney transplant recipient in the United States and unknowingly contracted Hepatitis C at birth. Diagnosed at 37 with young kids, she faced end-stage liver disease, treatment failure, and crushing depression before a 2014 clinical trial cured her and changed her purpose. Now navigating dystonia, neuropathy, and MS diagnosis while her liver regenerates, Kim sh...

Seven to ten years, that's how long most people wait for an accurate rare disease diagnosis, cycling through treatments that don't work and doctors who've never seen their condition. Pam Cusick , VP of Rare Patient Voice, has built a community of 200,000 patients across 1,500 conditions who get paid $120/hour to shape clinical trials, test medical devices, and ensure research reflects real patient...

Nine out of ten people with eating disorders never receive specialty care. They're sitting right next to you, walking wounded in a diet culture designed to keep them that way. Eating disorder dietitian Jessica Setnick has spent 28 years uncovering the intergenerational food stories, unconscious childhood rules, and emotional programming that drive disordered eating long before anyone thinks to ask...

After healing her multiple sclerosis naturally over 20 years, Christine Ruch discovered the missing piece that no diet, supplement, or lifestyle change could address: nervous system dysregulation. Her journey from Boulder holistic chef to transformation guide reveals why emotional capacity matters as much as nutrition, how unconscious patterns keep us sick, and the radical difference between forci...

The day Maye Jepson 's son called from a psychiatric hospital in California with a schizophrenia diagnosis, everything changed. Over 20 years later, she's transformed that fear into fierce advocacy—co-presenting Crisis Intervention Team training with Jason, founding Parenting Through Mental Illness, and giving parents the hope and practical tools they desperately need. From becoming a "trust partn...

What if the "healthy" grains you're eating are actually fueling inflammation and disrupting your sleep?  Board-certified clinical nutritionist Beverly Meyer pioneered the Paleo diet decades before it had a name, and her ancestral approach to healing reveals why chronic conditions improve when we stop fighting our biology. From batch cooking strategies to the hidden truth about olive oil fraud...

Is type 2 diabetes truly reversible, or are we being told the wrong story? Kim welcomes professional chef and diabetes advocate Jeff Grundy for an honest conversation about the confusion, fear, and misinformation surrounding type 2 diabetes. After spending years relying on medication alone, Jeff experienced a wake-up call that changed everything. Today, he helps others understand that real change...