Uninvisible Pod with Lauren Freedman

Trishna Bharadia is an award-winning patient advocate, and was diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) at the age of 28. As she tells Lauren in this episode, the diagnosis helped her find her true purpose: to actively campaign for patient engagement and to represent the possibilities of living – and thriving – with MS. She has since become a public speaker, writer, vlog ger, blo...

Becca Lustgarten is a vocalist, writer, and classically-trained actress. A few years ago, after suffering severe digestive distress , she was diagnosed with Celiac disease. Celiac is more than an allergy – it is a degenerative disease that causes major digestive destruction if left untreated. The only treatment? To go gluten-free. Becca joins us to share her story of discovery, and how she’s worke...

Listen in to Part 2 of Lauren’s interview with Dr. (of music!) Ginny Orenstein, who healed herself of lupus SLE, rheumatoid arthritis, two benign brain tumors, and stroke with Medical Medium Anthony William’s protocols for diet and lifestyle. Not only has Dr. Ginny been able to tackle her own health concerns, but after a major cardiac event her husband has also joined her on the journey to wellnes...

At 34, Dr. Ginny Orenstein (doctor of music!) had finally been diagnosed with severe systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) , rheumatoid arthritis in her chest and spine, two benign vascular brain tumors, and a microvascular ischemic brain disease (stroke). H er life was one of confinement – she had been bedridden for 2.5 years, and prescribed medications and chemotherapy were causing more harm than g...

Eric is originally from Philadelphia, PA, and was born with cystic fibrosis . Diagnosed at the age of 1, his original life expectancy was between 10-14 years. As advances in medical treatment have moved forward, so has his life expectancy…so much so that Eric has now , at 41, surpassed his doctors’ hopes. He moved to Southern California as an adult to take advantage of the statewide Genetically Ha...

  Lara Bloom is the international Executive Director of the Ehlers- Danlos Society . Finally diagnosed with EDS at the age of 24 (after many years of chronic pain and frustration), she channeled her healing into patient advocacy . Her job is to raise global awareness of rare, chronic , and invisible diseases, with a focus on the Ehlers- Danlos syndromes, hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD) , an...

T. Sydney Bergeron Mikus is an award-winning writer, artist, designer, model, and activist based in NYC. They live with TBD (tick borne disease), including Lyme, Bartonella , and ehrlicia , as well as POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome). They create work driven by healing a dvocacy , art, and narrative as tools for change, and self-care as disruption. They are the founder and director...

With a vision to build the safest, most consistently effective and non-invasive solution to the epidemic of chronic pain, Brendon Lundberg (a chronic pain survivor himself) co-founded Radiant Pain Relief Centres in Oregon. The centres use an FDA-approved and Mayo Clinic-tested treatment for chronic pain called Scrambler Therapy, which targets the brain’s response to pain in the body and aims to re...

Noah Gardner is a scientist based in Massac husetts. He was diagnosed with t ype 1 (j uvenile) d ia betes in 1995, at the age of 12 . While this autoimmune condition is genetic, his diagnosis came completely out of the blue to both him and his family. A little background on T1 diabetes: in an autoimmune reaction, the immune system attacks beta cells in the pancreas (which produce insulin), thus de...

Em & Kate are the sisters behind the wellness blog Two Being Healthy. Both live with lupus, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrom e (POTS), Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), mast cell activation disorder (MCAD) , and cytochrome mutations (which have affected their ability to metabolize certain drugs) . Having spent much of their adult lives living with and navigating the symptoms of invisible illne...

In an effort to preserve this guest’s privacy, we are using an alias in this episode – an Uninvisibl e first! Ilene is a n award-winning 6 th -grade elementary school teacher. She is also a survivor of rape , “endometrial symptoms” (aka, undiagnosed endometriosis – chronic pain that was only compounded by her sexual assault ) , and hypothyroidism . She joins Lauren for a no-holds-barred conversati...

Jameisha Prescod is a London-based activist who lives with lupus, Ra ynaud’s, and femeroacetabular impingement (FAI); she is also waiting on possible diagnoses of endometriosis and Celiac disease. She is the founder of You Look Okay To Me , an online platform for pain and chronic illness that is chock-full of content about invisible illness, disability, and their roles in tech, art, culture…and ev...

Alison Yates is a multi-hyphenate creative living in Los Angeles. A comedienne and actor, producer, writer, photographer, social media manager, website designer, and skincare consultant (phew!), she performs sketch and comedy regularly with Second City and the Groundlings, and has a production company called The People Zoo. She’s been featured on several TV shows, including Jane the Virgin and Mom...

Join us for another joyous installment with the incomparable Sascha Alexander. Remember that time she thought she had toxic mold, in addition to interstitial cystitis , c andida, and Hashimoto’s disease? Well, guess what? That toxic mold ain’t so moldy…it’s Lyme! Lauren sits down with Sascha to find out how she was ultimately diagnosed, and how she’s increasing her detox protocol to rid her body o...

Dominique Viel is the founder of InvisiYouth Charity, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that helps teens and young adults around the world with varied chronic conditions and disabilities discover empowering lifestyle programs to live full lives while battling illness. A natural progression of speaking engagements she began as a teen in research hospital treatment centers, she launched InvisiYouth i...

Lauren brings back a familiar guest: Calliope Tsoukalas , a nutrition and wellness coach based in Los Angeles, CA. Calliope is on the show again not only to go more in-depth about her practice, but also to share her experiences living with one of the most nebulous of invisible illness diagnoses: IBS. Listen in as Calliope reveals…  -  that she felt more connected to her body at a young age because...

Sarah Belclaire is an art librarian, fine art photographer, writer, and researcher based in Boston. Believe it or not, she and Lauren connected over email when Uninvisible first launched…because, like our first guest Mercedes Yvette, Sarah had lupus! Let’s explain the use of past tense here…Sarah lived with drug-induced lupus for two years – a reaction to medication she was prescribed for a GI iss...

Kent Holtorf, M.D. is the medical director of the Holtorf Medical Group, and a founder and director of the non-profit National Academy of Hypothyroidism (NAH). He has trained numerous physicians across the country in the use of bioidentical hormones, hypothyroidism, complex endocrine dysfunction , and innovative treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and chronic infectious diseases...

Paige Fockler is a performer and podcaster who lives with depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. She is t he host of Greetings From Depression, a podcast in which  she interviews individuals who live with mental illness, and aims to create an environment in which discussions about mental health are acceptable, productive, and completely de-stigmatized. In this episode, she talks about her pers...

Karen Felice is a renowned Reiki Master Teacher in the Usui and Karuna traditions. She’s no stranger to the demands of a busy work-life, with a background as a TV news producer and editor . Having made a career shift in 2011 with her training school and Reiki practice, Reconnect to Wellness, she now keeps a space in West Hollywood, CA, and is a published author. Her first book, “Compassion Speaks”...

Sonora Chase is an actress and writer living in Los Angeles. She has now survived not just one, but TWO acoustic neuromas – benign, fast-growing brain tumors that have affected her hearing, balance, spatial awareness, and facial nerves. In this episode, she shares her brave story – which involved a battle with health insurance companies, the steep learning curve of discovering her rights as a pati...

Lauren interviews another amazing health practitioner in this episode: Michele Sherman, MFT. Michele is a specialist in EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) therapy, which can be extremely useful in overcoming traumas of all shapes and sizes. She runs a practice out of Encino, CA Listen in as Michele reveals…   - why EMDR is an effective and fast treatment for trauma   - how EMDR w...

In episode 10, Lauren conducts her first international interview with actress Kati e Geor giou, who lives in London ( UK ) . Katie has been li ving with Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (MS) since she was young, and waited 10+ years for her official diagnosis at age 19 . In this conversation, she tells us what her flare s look and feel like, gives her frank opinion of her experience with the...

Lauren sits down with Rachel Trobman , found er and CEO of Upside Health, creator s of the pain management app Ouchie . Not only is Rachel a busy working mom of 2, but she also lives with mixed connective tissue disease. She gives us a glimpse into her life running a fast-growth business and helming a family on limited bandwidth, and explains the birth of her heart-centered mission to help others...

Join us as we embark on a series of interviews in search of a diagnosis. Dayna Schaaf is an entrepreneur based in Phoenix, AZ. She started having symptoms a few months ago and has early possible diagnoses of rheumatoid arthritis and/or lupus SLE. What does the search for answers in the invisible chronic illness world look like? How has it affected Dayna’s day-to-day? What about her access to healt...