Episode 97: Integrative Rheumatology: Bridging Medicine, Nutrition & Lifestyle with Dr. Micah Yu

For many people living with autoimmune disease, seeing a rheumatologist can bring up a lot of uncertainty—especially if you want to incorporate nutrition and lifestyle alongside conventional medical care.

In this episode of the Autoimmune Wellness Podcast, Mickey Trescott is joined by Dr. Micah Yu, a quadruple board-certified physician specializing in rheumatology, internal medicine, integrative medicine, and functional medicine. Dr. Yu also lives with autoimmune arthritis himself, giving him a unique perspective as both physician and patient.

Together, they explore what integrative rheumatology actually looks like, why conventional medicine and lifestyle don't have to be an either/or choice, and how patients can build a healthcare team that supports the full picture of autoimmune health. They also discuss how to prepare for a rheumatology appointment, when medications may be necessary, and how nutrition and lifestyle can work alongside medical treatment.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How Dr. Yu's experience with gout and spondyloarthritis shaped his approach to medicine
• What rheumatologists actually treat and why they often serve as "detectives" for complex cases
• Common misconceptions about rheumatologists, nutrition, and lifestyle medicine
• Why time constraints within conventional healthcare can make complex autoimmune care challenging
• What integrative and functional rheumatology looks like in practice
• Why medication and lifestyle interventions don't have to be mutually exclusive
• How to prepare for a rheumatology appointment and make the most of limited time
• Why tracking symptoms, medications, supplements, and your health history can help your physician
• How patients and their prescribing providers can approach medication changes when health improves
• Why building a multidisciplinary healthcare team can be valuable for autoimmune disease

Resources:

• Dr. Lifestyle: https://drlifestyle.org
• My Autoimmune MD: https://myautoimmunemd.com
• Social Media: @MyAutoimmuneMD
• Podcast: Autoimmune Alchemy

Episode Timeline:

00:00 – Why rheumatology and lifestyle medicine don't have to be either/or

02:15 – Introducing Dr. Micah Yu

03:41 – Dr. Yu's personal journey with autoimmune arthritis

07:40 – Rheumatology 101: What does a rheumatologist do?

10:15 – Common misconceptions about rheumatology

16:15 – What integrative and functional rheumatology looks like

19:40 – How to get the most out of a rheumatology appointment

22:02 – Combining medication with diet and lifestyle

25:27 – Hope for people living with autoimmune disease

27:34 – Dr. Yu's advice for building a healthcare team

28:22 – Wrap-up and where to follow Dr. Yu

For many people living with autoimmune disease,

the word rheumatologist can bring up a lot of emotions.

Maybe you've waited months to get your appointment.

Maybe you've been told your labs look normal even though

you feel not that great.

Maybe you've wondered if you'll be pressured into medications before

anybody asks about your diet, your sleep, your stress, or your lifestyle.

Or maybe you've avoided seeing a rheumatologist altogether because

you weren't sure they could support the approach that you want to take.

The truth is rheumatologists play a critical role in diagnosing and

managing many autoimmune diseases, but the best outcomes don't come

from choosing between conventional medicine and nutrition or lifestyle.

They come from understanding how those pieces can work together.

Today we're talking with a physician who is helping bridge that gap.

Welcome back to the Autoimmune Wellness Podcast.

I'm your host, Mickey Trescott, and today's conversation is one I've

been especially excited to share.

I first met today's guest when he invited me onto his podcast, and

one of the things that immediately stood out to me was how balanced

and thoughtful his perspective was.

As someone who's spent more than a decade educating people about the role

of nutrition and lifestyle in autoimmune disease, I deeply appreciate physicians

who recognize that food, movement, stress management, and sleep all matter, but

who also understand the incredible value of modern medicine when it's needed.

Unfortunately, I think many patients feel like they have to

choose between the two worlds.

Either they pursue conventional care and they completely give up on lifestyle

medicine, or they avoid specialists altogether because they're worried

their goals won't be supported.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

Today, we're talking about what integrative rheumatology actually

looks like, how patients can build a collaborative relationship with their

rheumatologist, and how nutrition, lifestyle, and conventional medicine

can complement one another to create the best possible outcome.

We'll also hear about our guest's own journey living with autoimmune disease,

and how that personal experience has shaped the way he cares for his patients.

Dr. Micah Yu is a quadruple board-certified physician

specializing in rheumatology, internal medicine, integrative

medicine, and functional medicine.

He completed his medical training at Loma Linda University and the Andrew

Weil Center for Integrative Medicine Fellowship at the University of Arizona.

He's the co-founder of Dr. Lifestyle and founder of My Autoimmune MD, where he

helps patients address autoimmune disease through evidence-based integrative care.

What makes Dr. Yu's perspective especially unique isn't just

that he is a rheumatologist.

He's also a patient living with arthritis himself.

That personal experience, combined with his extensive medical training, has

given him a deep appreciation for both conventional treatments and the powerful

role that nutrition, lifestyle, and whole-person care can play in helping

people live well with autoimmune disease.

So, Dr. Yu, thank you so much for being here, and welcome to

the Autoimmune Wellness Podcast.

Micah Yu, MD: Thank you so much for having me on the show.

It's an honor to be on here.

Well, I just feel like I won the lottery in terms of finding

somebody who not only has the background and expertise in all of these areas,

and then the personal history.

So that's kind of where I want to start, is your own story.

I really think that that's what makes your perspective unique.

Again, you're not just a rheumatologist, but you live with arthritis yourself.

Can you tell us a little bit about your journey with autoimmune disease and how it

shaped the physician that you have become?

Micah Yu, MD: Yeah.

So my journey started many, many, many years ago.

I was diagnosed with gout at the age of 17 in high school,

it was very, very painful at the time.

And then I continued to have flares throughout the years

into my 20s in medical school.

But the disease really transformed into something that was not

consistent with gout flares.

I started having pains anywhere from my TMJs all the way down to my

feet with unexplainable reasons why.

I saw different rheumatologists.

They couldn't explain why I had my symptoms.

They said that, "You have gout, yes, but you might have something else that's

going on, and we don't know why. All your antibodies are negative." But I did have

high inflammatory markers at that time.

No one ever mentioned to me that, "Hey, you can change your diet to bring down

inflammation." So I continued eating Hot Pockets, fast food, and anything that was

a quick bite, just to get through school and medical school, 'cause you know how

busy it is, and how stressful it is.

So I would go to school and even go through residency with pain.

I would flare anywhere from every two weeks to every month.

And I was hoping that wouldn't flare without medications, and I wasn't given

immunosuppressants because at that time, no one really knew what was going on.

So I did take my gout medications at that time.

So it was a struggle.

It was very painful, and I was hoping that one day I would find

something natural to help myself.

And I did notice that there was some correlation with food because when I would

drink coffee at Starbucks, I would flare.

so I was like, "Hmm, maybe there's some correlation here."

But in medical school you don't learn enough about nutrition to

tie the two and two together.

So it wasn't until I discovered a whole food plant-based

diet that I gave this a shot.

And I started getting better.

And I did forget to mention that I got diagnosed with a second

disease called spondyloarthritis, and that was during residency.

And spondyloarthritis is an autoimmune condition that can cause you to have

joint pain from head to toe, and it's very similar to rheumatoid arthritis.

I was given medications to go on.

I refused it.

I'm not the best patient for doctors.

So these were my own bosses that I refused medications from, because I

saw my bosses as my rheumatologist.

So I discovered whole food plant-based diet, and I did that

diet, and then I went to remission.

I was doubting myself that I was getting better.

One week would go by, one month would go by, two months go by,

three months go by, I was pain-free.

I was kinda shocked.

I was waiting for a flare.

And I got my labs done and my inflammatory markers did go negative.

So that was very pleasant to see that objectively my inflammation

numbers were also going down as well.

So that led me down the path of, "You know what? Maybe what I learned during

my medical training isn't the only answer here. Maybe there's something

better and greater to learn about." That's why I did a two-year fellowship

at Andrew Weil's Integrated Medicine Fellowship in University of Arizona.

That's why I went on to do functional medicine training.

That's why I've gone through all these different conferences to keep learning,

because is a lot to learn about there regarding just not only health in general,

but specifically autoimmune disease.

Wow, thank you for sharing that, and definitely it makes sense

that you started to have your own personal experience during residency,

because I don't think it's an accident that somebody ends up with

quadruple board certifications in integrative and functional medicine.

So it definitely sounds like that experience led you on the path to

figuring out more about how to help people with this, 'cause I can definitely

relate to that story, so thank you.

Let's back up.

For anybody listening who doesn't know what rheumatologists do, I actually

grew up with a grandfather who was a rheumatologist, so I grew up kind of

learning a little bit about what he did, but he always described it as being

the detective of autoimmune disease.

I'd love to hear from you.

What is a rheumatologist, and why would somebody see one?

Micah Yu, MD: Yeah, I totally agree with your grandfather.

I believe they are detectives too.

So a rheumatologist is a specialist in connective tissue diseases, and oftentimes

when people think of rheumatologists and even other doctors, they think

of autoimmune disease specialists.

So yes, we do cover a lot of autoimmune diseases, especially

of the connective tissue.

So anywhere that relates to tendons, bones, muscles, any autoimmune

disease related to that, we cover.

But we also cover non-autoimmune diseases as well that are rheumatic.

So we cover osteoarthritis, which right now is not known as an autoimmune disease.

It's known as a wear and tear disease.

It might change later on.

We cover gout, we cover osteoporosis, so we just cover joint pains in general.

I usually describe rheumatologists as something similar to Dr. House.

We're always thinking, we always take the most complicated cases.

When other specialists don't have an answer, will give it to

rheumatologists as sometimes a last resort to try to figure things out.

So we give a lot of immunosuppressive medications, so a lot of medications

that you might, as a listener, might be taking, we give those medications.

We give a lot of medications that deal with pain as well.

And we also deal with fibromyalgia.

So there's a lot of different diseases that we treat.

We probably treat over 50 diseases, most of which you probably never heard

of 'cause they're not that common.

Yeah.

Thank you for that overview, and I really have a lot of respect for rheumatology

just because I know that often the patients that come to you, they have been

through a lot of other specialties and while rheumatology doesn't encompass all

of autoimmune disease, it really does end up being the place that a lot of

autoimmune patients end up just because of how the bones, the skin, the joints,

and all of this connective tissue.

Actually, a lot of people are surprised by this.

So I have psoriatic arthritis, which is a condition that is diagnosed by

and cared for by a rheumatologist, but the connective tissue actually

affects the skin and the eyes.

So my first sign was actually uveitis, which is inflammation in my eye,

and that's how I got my referral to rheumatology and ultimately my diagnosis.

So it is kind of surprising sometimes how those paths can lead to rheumatology.

But let's talk a little bit about some common misconceptions.

So there's a perception among some patients that rheumatologists aren't

interested in nutrition or lifestyle, and that the appointment is just

going to focus on medications.

What are some of the biggest misconceptions that you hear

about rheumatology, and how do you approach those conversations

differently with your patients?

Micah Yu, MD: Yeah.

So the one you mentioned, rheumatologists aren't really interested in nutrition

and don't believe in integrative care.

That's true to a certain extent.

The conversation is changing.

There are more interest in this, but you still have doctors who

dismiss this idea all that food is medicine, and anything else outside

of immunosuppressants can be helpful.

So is changing slowly.

So that's a misconception that all rheumatologists are not interested.

I, myself, am very interested in nutrition.

There are other doctors out there that are interested in nutrition.

But I would say most of the doctors are still not very into

this, and the ones that are into this don't know enough about it.

They don't have the training for this, so they don't talk

about it with their patients.

They tell their patient, "Just go on a Mediterranean diet,"

or, "Just go look it up online.

It might help you.

I believe in it, but I don't know enough about it." I think that's where most

doctors are at right now with this.

The second misconception is that rheumatologists don't care.

I get that sometimes.

I wouldn't say they don't care.

It's the fact that they don't have enough time.

If you see a doctor in the insurance system, sometimes you get 20 minutes out

of them, or half an hour, but sometimes that's not enough for a rheumatology

patient when you have symptoms from head to toe, not just of the joints.

And it's certainly not enough for follow-ups when you have 15 minutes

and you have all these complicated questions and symptoms that you're

presenting with, and your doctor, they're going down an algorithm.

They're giving you medications, and they want to see their next patient.

That's how they do it in the clinics these days.

And they have to do it to keep the door open.

Or else if they spend a whole hour with you in the insurance system, they're not

going to have a practice that's open.

Rent's expensive, staff is expensive, so there's a reason

why the system is the way it is.

It's 'cause it's not survivable.

And doctors in the clinic that are employed by the hospital

system, they have to meet metrics.

If they don't meet metrics, they're going to fall behind, or they get

yelled at by the administrators, okay?

So a lot of the complicated cases, unfortunately, the healthcare system

is not built to listen to you.

And even these complicated rheumatic cases, the history is

very important, so time spent with patients is really important.

This is why I got out of the insurance system because I wanted to spend

time listening to my patients get the full story, to treat them properly.

So I would say number two is your doctor just doesn't have enough time for you.

It's not that they don't care, okay?

And number three is the most common misconception also is that I have

an autoimmune disease, but my doctor doesn't want to diagnose me.

I would say sometimes a lot of these symptoms look like autoimmune diseases,

the brain fog, the fatigue, but you actually don't have an autoimmune disease.

have other conditions that look like autoimmune diseases,

such as mast cell activation syndrome, Lyme disease, fatigue,

dysautonomia, POTS, Ehlers-Danlos.

These are not specifically autoimmune conditions in rheumatology, so

a rheumatologist probably isn't going to diagnose you with this.

So you have to go outside of rheumatology and maybe talk to

three doctors, four doctors, other specialists to get the right answer.

Unfortunately there's a lot of diagnoses in integrative medicine that regular

doctors are not going to diagnose you with, are not going to look into.

So sometimes you have to go to naturopath, sometimes you have to get a blend of

all the different fields of regular medicine and alternative medicine

to come up with the right diagnosis.

I know it's very difficult to hear that, but being a doctor

that lives in both worlds,

I

Micah Yu, MD: see all the different diagnoses in my clinic, so sometimes

I am that final answer for the patient after all the years of

being gaslit and seeing 20 doctors.

Doctors are always evolving and learning, so you gotta seek a second opinion if your

doctor doesn't give you the right answer.

Yeah.

I think it's really frustrating but also really good to hear the

perspective from the doctor side.

'Cause I think from the patients, you know, of course we want answers.

We want to find the correct answer and then find the correct

treatment and blend of treatments or something that's going to work.

But sometimes it's so frustrating to then be like, "Well, it's not rheumatology.

We need to go somewhere else." But I will say that describing kinda what

you're seeing on your end with the insurance system and not having time.

I mean, that is just an incredible issue in rheumatology just because,

like, I waited eight months to see my rheumatologist after I

almost went blind in one eye.

And they even were like, once my eye was recovered, kept pushing me

out because I wasn't in a flare, and there's a lot of people that

need to see rheumatology in my area.

But when I did finally sit down with that doctor in the physical exam,

she identified, like, the tiniest bit of pitting psoriasis on my nails,

and that was actually the thing that tipped me over into being able to get

the diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis, which doesn't have antibodies.

Some of these conditions are just so challenging to diagnose, and that

history and the time is really important.

And if doctors are constantly squeezed into these tinier and tinier chunks

of time a lot of things can go missed.

So yeah, thank you for describing that and why it's so hard.

So maybe hopefully everyone can go in really informed, which we're

going to talk about in a little bit.

But the next thing that I want to talk about is, so we talked about a

little bit conventional rheumatology.

Talk to us about what integrative rheumatology looks like.

So you have these four board certifications in not just

internal medicine, rheumatology, integrative and functional medicine.

Talk to us about what integrative rheumatology actually looks like

in practice, and how you combine evidence-based medicine with the

nutrition and lifestyle interventions.

Micah Yu, MD: So my integrative medicine practice, it's much different

than a regular rheumatologist clinic, but also it's different from

other integrative rheumatologists.

I say that because I have extra training beyond just integrative medicine.

So regular integrative medicine, you're just talking about diet,

sleep, and these lifestyle factors, and maybe give you some supplements.

I take it a step beyond that.

So my integrative medicine practice, of course I'll look

for your rheumatology problems.

But sometimes you don't have a rheumatology problem, so I will

look for other potential diagnoses.

Do you have SIBO?

Do you have mast activation syndrome?

Do you have Lyme disease?

Do you have mold illness?

I look for some of these things that regular rheumatologist doesn't look for.

And then not only do I talk about nutrition, lifestyle factors, sleep,

stress, I discuss trauma with you.

I

Micah Yu, MD: talk about other supplements, other herbs, maybe

some homeopathic treatments that you can try to maybe help yourself.

So that's what my clinic really looks like, and I also talk

about regular rheumatology.

So I will offer regular rheumatology medications to my patients.

I will offer biologics.

I will offer the immunosuppressive medications.

If a patient doesn't want to take it, that's okay with me if we have time,

meaning if a patient isn't that sick, then we have time on our side to try some of

these alternative medicine treatments.

However, if you're really sick, you're on the verge of going to the ICU or

the hospital, will push you to go on medications just to bridge us over

so that we can give the alternative medicine treatment some time to kick in.

Because these alternative medicines, or in-integrative medicine therapies

sometimes doesn't work overnight.

We don't want to get you in the hospital.

We want to keep you alive and well-functioning.

So if a patient is doing okay, they're having some pain and aches, but

they're still living their life, then maybe we have some time on our side.

We can give diet a chance.

We can give supplements a chance and herbs a chance.

And then eventually, if we do need medications, we just blend

those medications in, and I do use medications and herbs and supplements

all at the same time, including homeopathy and other treatments.

love that.

I've always said, all the tools in the toolbox, they should be all be

available to everyone who wants to live well, and we should have no shame

in picking a path that is blended.

I mean, that's what I've used in my own journey, and really, I just want

to live a healthy life , you know?

And sometimes the medications and the lifestyle and the diet and

everything together is, is what helps.

And, especially, like, when I had my eye situation, I mean, you can go blind in a

week without treating something like that.

So I was very, very happy for the powerful medications that they

had to get me out of that flare.

Thank you for sharing that.

Let's circle back a little bit about just how to get the most

out of a rheumatology appointment.

So for anybody who's maybe preparing for an appointment, and you know that

whether or not this rheumatologist is in the conventional system or even

if they're working more integrative like you do, Dr. Yu, how can a patient

prepare themselves for that appointment and get the most out of it, to be

an active partner in their care?

Micah Yu, MD: So the best way to prepare for a rheumatology appointment, I would

say is keep a diary of your symptoms.

And if you have a long history of diseases and medications you've

been on spanning like five years, 10 years, 20 years, the best thing you

can do is write a timeline out on the computer, whether it be on Microsoft

Word, and bring it to the clinic.

And write down which medications you're actively taking and which

medications you've tried in the past.

Because as a rheumatologist, I want to know what other diseases you have and what

other medication you're on, especially if you're on a rheumatic medication.

I want to know what you've tried and what you what's working

for you and what you've failed.

Because that will determine what else I give you next.

From an integrative perspective, I would love to know like what supplements you're

taking, what herbs you're taking, what other integrative modalities you've

done, whether it's, plasmapheresis, EBOO, homeopathy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

I want to know all those things because that tells me what's

next on my list to give you if those things haven't worked out.

And it's important that you come ready with questions to your doctor.

The first doctor you see might not be the right doctor for you.

You gotta move on and find another rheumatologist and maybe ask those

hard questions to your rheumatologist.

What diet can work for this?

What supplements have been proven to work?

And also, what other potential diagnoses can I have if I don't have

this diagnoses that you're giving me, especially if you're not getting better.

Yeah.

All really, really great advice, and especially the symptom tracking.

I always feel like when I go into the doctor and they're like, "Ah, how you

feeling?" It's like, "Ah," you know?

But having a list I like to rank my tendon pain and my joint pain on a scale

of one to 10, just so that I can see how that's fluctuating over time, so when

I go in and I can actually tell if my pain is getting worse or getting better,

but that's all really good advice.

So let's talk about the lifestyle pieces alongside medicine, and

we already talked about your approach to combining medication.

But I know that you're also a big believer in nutrition and lifestyle.

How do you think about how that combination works?

Can you describe a little more about how maybe somebody who is on a very

powerful medication, which by the way, like, I know that the joint

damage that comes with some of these autoimmune diseases is often permanent.

So I love that you mentioned that you don't hesitate to use medication when

it is clinically very appropriate because, you don't want people having

joint replacements and things because they failed to take a medication

when they were in a really big flare.

But once, you know, somebody's coming to the table, maybe they're on a medication,

they're feeling good, how do you combine that with lifestyle and nutrition?

Micah Yu, MD: So if a patient's doing well in my clinic, and they're on a good

anti-inflammatory diet and they're on medications, do open the discussion up

about weaning them off of medications.

So for example, if you're on methotrexate, I would wean you off.

If you're on 20 milligrams, I would go down to 15 milligrams, and I'll see you

in a couple weeks or a couple months.

And if you're still doing well, and I keep weaning down the medications,

to a point where, you get to a level there's pain, then I stop there.

That means your body can't go any lower down.

Then I start opening the discussion about other alternative therapies.

Do we need to add another supplement or herb to you?

Do I need to give you a integrative medication to lower the pain burden?

Do I need to do some other forms of healing?

Do I need to give you acupuncture, or something else?

Or is there something else we're missing, a root cause like mold and Lyme that's

inhibiting you from healing completely?

So I open that discussion up with my patients, and we go down

the path of other alternatives.

I think that's a really reasonable, and of course, everybody

should be having these discussions with their prescribing provider.

But I think just mentally a lot of people who start diet and lifestyle

on medications have this concern of, well, am I going to be able to tell

if the diet and the lifestyle works?

And my practice as a nutritionist, I often tell people that, try to do everything

you can to feel the best you can, and then work with your prescribing provider,

like Dr. Yu, to then determine a plan of weaning or changing the different levers.

Something that I do for my psoriatic arthritis, I realized I didn't need

to start something like methotrexate because I was able to use like a topical

NSAID, for when I have a joint flare, which isn't very often, and it spares

like my gut the taking the oral NSAIDs.

So I determined that plan working with my rheumatologist, and we figured out that

I can manage my pain when I have some flares without taking that medication.

So this is the type of discussion I know a lot of people just don't

feel very empowered to have because they're afraid of the medications

or they're afraid that their doctor isn't going to want to wean them off.

But I think if you come at them from a position of health, is

what I'm hearing you say, then you have a lot of leeway to adjust the

plan and see what works for you.

And there's no shame in if your body really needs that little bit

of medication or even a lot of medication to feel really great.

That's what you need, and you deserve to feel great, right?

Micah Yu, MD: Exactly.

Exactly.

Yeah, there's so many ways of healing.

So let's talk a little bit about hope.

So autoimmune diseases are lifelong conditions.

Both you and I have that personal experience there.

Even though we've overcome so much, there's always this little piece of

you that's kind of like, "Uh-oh, I feel vulnerable." And it can feel

really overwhelming, especially when somebody is newly diagnosed.

What gives you hope today that maybe wasn't true 10 or 20 years ago,

both as a physician and as somebody that's living with arthritis?

Micah Yu, MD: Yeah.

What gives me hope is that these alternative therapies can work.

Lifestyle medicine is becoming more of a conversation in modern healthcare, so

future physicians will be educated on this topic of lifestyle playing a major role.

And what proves to be true time and time again is that integrative

medicine is, even though sometimes it's called woo-woo, eventually

modern medicine will come around find out that some of these integrative

therapies are working and have evidence.

They're just not proven yet.

It gives me hope that in the future, more of these autoimmune patients will have

more integrative treatments going forward.

Also, these complex illnesses like Lyme and mold, they're being recognized

more and more each day, so hopefully 10 years, 20 years from now, this will

be part of mainstream conversations.

Yeah.

I love that, and I really see a lot changing in the research landscape.

I know a lot of people say, "We don't research this," but actually what I'm

seeing in these research groups are actually a lot of interest in diet and

nutrition and stress management, and in combination with conventional care.

And I think that everybody knows that it takes time for this stuff to be trickling

down, but I agree with you, we're going to get to a place where, this is much more

mainstream because the results are there, and that's what everybody wants, right?

They want to feel better.

And once the word gets out, then I think we're going to see a lot more of this.

So thank you for that.

Micah Yu, MD: Of course.

If you could leave our listeners with one piece of advice

about navigating autoimmune disease and building a healthcare team that truly

supports them, what would that be?

Micah Yu, MD: Yeah.

So if you are going to build a healthcare team, then definitely

have a rheumatologist if you have a rheumatic disease.

But also you want to find a therapist if you have trauma and stress, 'cause that

plays a huge role with autoimmunity.

And you want to find a dietician or nutritionist that's well-versed in the

conversations of autoimmunity, because there are a lot of dieticians out there

and nutritionists that are general, but you want to find someone that understands

the anti-inflammatory diet and the nuances of an anti-inflammatory diet.

And don't be scared to seek out a naturopath, a Chinese medicine doctor,

Ayurveda, because some of these things can actually help you move forward and heal.

Dr. Yu, thank you so much for joining me today.

I really appreciate the perspective that you bring to this conversation,

both as a rheumatologist and as somebody who is an autoimmune patient yourself.

I hope one of the biggest takeaways for everybody listening is that this doesn't

have to be an either/or conversation.

We don't have to choose between working with a rheumatologist and paying attention

to nutrition, movement, sleep, stress, all the things that we talk about

on this podcast day in and day out.

The goal is to build a team that respects the full picture and to use

the tools that make sense for each of us, and I hope you learned a lot more

strategies in how to do that today.

Before we wrap up, Dr. Yu, can you let everybody know where they can

follow you, learn more about your work, and connect with you online?

Micah Yu, MD: Yeah.

So you can find me at drlifestyle.org, DRLifestyle.org.

That's my clinic.

I do a lot of telemedicine throughout the US, and I see consultations

all over the world as well.

And you can find me in my clinic in Newport Beach, California,

if you want to come in person.

And I am licensed in 16 states.

So just go on the website.

And also, if you want to find me on social media, I'm at My Autoimmune

MD. That's M-Y Autoimmune MD. I'm on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.

And you can find me at myautoimmund.com if you want to look at my

courses and more information.

And you can listen to our podcast at Autoimmune Alchemy on Spotify and Apple.

Yeah, you're everywhere.

And honestly your content is so great, so you guys definitely

go give Dr. Yu a follow.

He's got some really great resources and interviews all over

the internet and social media.

I don't know how you do it on top of being a rheumatologist, but I

guess this is the type of person who gets quadruple board-certified.

So we're going to include all of those links in the show notes.

Thank you again for being here and helping us see what's possible.

And to everybody listening, thanks so much for joining us, and we'll see you next

time on the Autoimmune Wellness Podcast.