Maggie Berghoff - Eat Right for Your Inflammation Type: The Three-Step Program to Strengthen Immunity, Heal Chronic Pain, and Boost Your Energy

Maggie Berghoff, FNP-C

Eat Right for Your Inflammation Type

The Three-Step Program to Strengthen Immunity, Heal Chronic Pain, and Boost Your Energy

An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2021 by Margaret Katherine Berghoff

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Atria Books hardcover edition December 2021

and colophon are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or .

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

Interior design by Timothy Shaner, NightandDayDesign.biz

Jacket design by Laywan Kwan

Illustration and photographs of food by Adobe Stock

Author photograph by Jack Rodriguez Photography

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Berghoff, Maggie, author.

Title: Eat right for your inflammation type : the three-step program to strengthen immunity, heal chronic pain, and boost your energy / Maggie Berghoff, FNP-C.

Description: First Atria books hardcover edition. | New York : Atria Books, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021042800 (print) | LCCN 2021042801 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982157647 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982157661 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: InflammationPopular works. | InflammationDiet TherapyPopular works. | NutritionPopular works. | Self-care, HealthPopular works.

Classification: LCC RB131 .B47 2021 (print) | LCC RB131 (ebook) | DDC 616/.0473dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021042800

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021042801

ISBN 978-1-9821-5764-7

ISBN 978-1-9821-5766-1 (ebook)

This publication contains the opinions and ideas of its author. It is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed in the publication. It is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering medical, health, or any other kind of personal professional services in the book. The reader should consult his or her medical, health, or other competent professional before adopting any of the suggestions in this book or drawing inferences from it.

The author and publisher specifically disclaim all responsibility for any liability, loss, or risk, personal or otherwise, that is incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this book.

Some names and identifying characteristics have been changed.

To my family, I love you with all my heart and am so incredibly grateful.

To you, as you pick up this book, may it impact you and everyone around you in the most positive way.

I was packing for a trip to the lake. One minute, I was choosing clothes, folding them, and wedging them neatly into my duffel bag, feeling the excitement for a quick getaway with my boyfriend and his family, and thinking about what shade of coral to paint my nails. The next minute, I reached for my favorite swimsuit and a wave of dizziness came out of nowhere. I tried to steady myself, but the room started to spin. I began to black out, a darkness creeping in from my periphery as I fumbled for my phone to call my mom because my roommate wasnt home.

Shaking, I pressed the speed dial. Hello? Maggie? she asked on the other end of the line. I opened my mouth, but the connection between the words I wanted to say and my mouth actually saying them short-circuited. Nothing came out. I willed myself to speak, trying harder, trying to ask for help, and when I finally found words, they slurred together into complete gibberish.

I was completely shocked and scared. I didnt know what was happening.

I hung up and anxiously tried to text her instead, but the words hardly looked like words. I remember continuing to try. Typing, send. Typing, send. My phones typing board blurred together, a haze of cs and ds, and the room continued to take me on a carousel of dizziness and confusion.

My mom called back. I answered but still no real words formed as I tried to speak. She told me bluntly: Get to the ER, now. She didnt have a clue what was going on, and neither did I. Fortunately, my roommate got back just at that moment, and she rushed me to the ER. By the time I was in the ER bed, hooked to IVs and prepping for an MRI, MRA, and echo scan of my head and heart, the room had stabilized a bit. I was still dizzy and confused and my words werent coming out quite right, but I felt better. Just as I was beginning to feel embarrassed, like Id made a big deal out of nothing, the doctor came back in.

Maggie, it looks like you had a TIA, he informed me calmly. A TIA, a transient ischemic attack, is a ministroke. Blood flow to your brain becomes either reduced or blocked, causing stroke-like symptoms such as garbled speech and severe dizziness.

I couldnt wrap my head around it. A ministroke? I was twenty-four, active, and had always been conscientious about making the healthiest choices. My friends turned to me for nutrition and health advice. How could this be?

The truth is, deep down I knew I had been severely off with my health for years. I was vibrant and healthy on the outside, but secretly struggling on the inside. Nearly three years prior, I had started to experience severe bloating. Even a snack like veggies with olive oil or hummus with gluten-free crackers would cause uncomfortable bloating in which my stomach would be hard to the touch. And one year prior, Id faced a peak of my mental stress that had started to take a toll on my body. I was finishing the last three weeks of the first year of my nurse practitioner program at Vanderbilt University, when I had to move into a friends house. The lease on my own place was up, and I had a few finals left to take before Id head home, where I would complete my final year of the program as a distance studentwhich means I would be completing my final clinical experience in Indiana and going down once a month to Vanderbilt for what they call a block week for testing and on-site work.

In addition to the stress, my friends house was nothing like what I was used to. I went from having one roommate to five roommates in a cramped space. They stayed up late into the night and had starkly different eating habits, including downing big tubs of Moose Tracks ice cream and greasy pizzas galore. Im all for that here and there, but it was a combination of the food, the late nights, the stress, the pushing my mind and my body to the brink. I started to really struggle. I fell into their lifestyle because there was no room in the fridge for my food, and my usual 4:30 a.m. alarm to go work out before classes would have woken them. This quick pivot in lifestyle was a far cry from my lifelong health-conscious habits and early bedtimes. To make matters worse, I was more stressed than Id ever been. I was distraught with the indecisiveness about whether I should stay in Nashville after graduation or move back to my hometown to be with my boyfriend. Oh, and finals. The stress caused yo-yo dieting, so Id eat healthy throughout the week, keeping my carb intake low per the online guidelines I was following from some workout blog I saw, then I would binge on the weekends (not to mention all the end-of-year celebrations with alcohol and sweets).