Founder, Sandra Dorst, knows well about change and acceptance. Diagnosed with Anti-Synthetase Syndrome (ASS) at the age of 38, Sandra found herself suddenly confronted with an extremely rare, chronic, debiliating and often fatal autoimmune condition. This disease targeted and compromised her lungs, muscles, heart, joints, and skin. For Sandra, a happily married mother of three young children, this diagnosis meant life as she knew it would never be the same. It meant a future of scheduling endless medical visits, lugging oxygen tanks, and enduring doses of prednisone, which promised uncomfortable side effects and high risk for other medical issues. And, of course, it meant emotional upheaval.
Through modern medicine and other lifestyle changes, Sandra had seen many unexpected improvements, but she was still riddled with chronic and debilitating pain, fatigue and brain fog. She was confronted with the need to change her diet many times after she was diagnosed. She always found changing other parts of her lifestyle much easier than her diet. She initially focused on exercise, sleep health and managing stress. Finally, when her routine and medication schedule stabilized and her symptoms became predictable, Sandra was ready to commit to the Auto-Immune Protocol (AIP) diet.
She secretly wished the diet would fail her because it's a challenging task to eliminate foods and replace them with unfamiliar ones. "Food is such a source of comfort for many, but for those fighting illness, it's sometimes all they have to look forward to." Thankfully, wishes don't always come true. Instead, the AIP diet turned Sandra's whole life around.