Originally published 3/30/17

It was a beautiful summer day, at the time I was living in Queens with my Great Grandmother. I remember playing outside and one day I just broke out into hives all over my face. I remember my grandmother calling my grandfather and telling him that I wasn't doing well. Before she could take me to the emergency room the hives went away, we thought everything was good but that was far from the truth. As time progress throughout the entire time of of my tenth year on this earth my face started to break out with a rash, I started getting red spots all over my face and those red spots started to get crusty and it looked like I was sick. People use to just stere at me for no reason, I remember my Aunt getting into arguments with people while we   were on the train because they would just watch me for the entire ride. Come to think about it my lupus started effecting me when I found out that I was moving to Brooklyn to live with my Grandfather and is daughter which is my Aunt. My Great Grandmother was an older women when she took me in, she was already in her late 60's. So at 70 she couldn't handle a hyper active child that didn't listen and was always getting into trouble. My grandmother also felt like I needed a male figure in my life so I moved to Brooklyn and I didn't want to. I had my own room in Queens, we had a backyard and all my friends lived in Queens but I didn't have a choice. I learned later in life that my lupus was activated by stress and anxiety. So when I moved to Brooklyn and my face continued to break out my grandfather took me to the doctor around the corner from my apartment and the doctor diagnosed me with wing worm. So I begin using the medication I was prescribed and nothing got better. So after a few months my Grandfather decided to take me to a specialist at NY Presbytarian in Manhattan. After the proper test were done I found out that I had skin lupus. I was told by the doctor that I could not be in the sun in the summer because it could make me extremely sick, I was also told that i should always wear a hat and sun screen. Well that didn't work out well for me. It's very hard to tell a Black person that gets his power and energy from the sun that I couldn't go outside and enjoy it. But for the next 3 to 4 years I did everything that the doctor said and eventually my lupus went into remission. It didn't come out of remission until I was 22 years old.

When my lupus came out of remission my grandfather had just had three strokes and had been diagnosed with dementia. My grandfather was my father figure and because of the strokes he lost his short term memory. So basically he could only remember the day during that particular day. If you would ask him the next day what happened he couldn't tell you. He was a very educated man before he had the strokes so he would still try to tell you what happened but he was just making it up as he went along. Taking care of my grandfather and watching him go through his adversity really saddened me. This was one of the factors that lead to my lupus coming out of remission. The otherfactor was that I stop listening to the doctor and I decided to live life like a regular person. I went outside when I wanted, I didn't wear sunscreen and I end up getting sick. The only difference this time was I started getting the symptoms of a person that had a different type of lupus. Before I finish that thought let me give you an idea of what lupus is. It is defined as a chronic inflammatory disease that occurs when your body's immune system attacks your own tissues and organs. Inflammation caused by lupus can effect many different body systems-including your joints, skin, kidney, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs. Their are four types of Lupus, they are: Systematic Lupus erythematosus, also known as SLE. The second type of lupus is called Discoid Lupus which is what I was diagnosed with. The third type of lupus is called Subacute cutaneous erythematosus. The forth type of lupus is called Neonatal Lupus. So I will not give you all the definitions of lupus but you can look them up after you read this article. So back to finishing my thought when my lupus came back I started to get the symptoms of a person that had Systematic lupus and Subacute cutaneous lupus. This means that before 22 the only symptoms I dealt with were getting a rash on my face and by body would always itch. When the Lupus came out of remission it came back with a force. I started to get cold flashes, I loss all my energy, I felt weak and I felt like my whole body was fighting against itself. It wasn't a good feeling, when I would go to the doctor they could see that I had lupus in my blood but they couldn't see what was causing the pain and making me sick. My theory is that everything comes with a consequence in life and that consequence could be good or bad. So since I decided to not listen to the doctors and live my life as I pleased the consequence was that my lupus had evolved and I was able to go outside and live my life but whenever my lupus would come out of remission It would come back with a vengeance. So I started taking my medication and I found peace with my grandfather being sick, I promised to stand by his side until he passed away. My grandfather passed away on August 3rd 2013. When he passed away my lupus came back out of remission. Another reason my lupus keeps coming out of remission is because I would never stay on the medication the doctors would prescribe me. I would use it as long as it took me for me to get my body back under control. The medication that I have to use does help me deal with my lupus. The downside is if I stay on it long enough it will break my bones down and I will start losing my eye sight. So you can see why I stop taking the medication. I also hate hospitals and all man made medications. I feel like modern medicine's only incentive is to keep you sick so that the system can make money off of your sickness. So when it is physically possible I stay away from hospitals and any type of medication.

I decided that I didn't want to deal with Lupus anymore and that I would do what was needed to get rid of it. So in order to do that I started researching where most diseases come from and how my body worked. So I started doing research on lupus, I saw that stress and anxiety were the leading factors of why most people get diagnosed with lupus. The other factor is that people with lupus have to maintain a particular type of diet. If you have lupus most of your food intake should be plant base foods, fruits and a lot of water. People with lupus shouldn't eat meat, eating meat will only agitate your lupus and lead to you getting more sick. While researching what caused most disease I came across another finding. All disease is derived from the mucus that you have in your body. When you start understanding your biology you will start to realize that our DNA carries all the germs of every disease that is on this planet. How that particular disease is activated is based on how you live and the things you are exposed to in society. For example car pollution can be a trigger, smoking cigarettes can be a trigger, drinking alcohol can be a trigger, unless you go to a doctor and do a full scan of your DNA you will never no what's your trigger, most people find out the hard way and that's through experience. These particular diseases live within the mucus that exist within your body. Mucus is created from eating meat, dairy products and artificial food. The only milk you should be drinking is the milk that is created in the body of the mother that created that baby. Human beings are the only other species that drinks other animals milk. When you start to research how milk is being massed produced you will find that it doesn't carry any nutritional value, the only thing it will do is make you sick, it doesn't matter if you have lupus or not. The human body was also not made to consume meat, it doesn't fully digest through our digestive system and the meat in our body eventually turns into maggots and those maggots in your body eventually turns into mucus that will eventually turn into some type of disease. In this warning I will include eggs and cheese, we should not eat process cheese or eggs. Another thing to keep in mind is that food is not produced how it use to be produced. It is mass produced and a lot of the meat that we eat now has been genetically modified and we will not know the effects to the food we are eating now until later down the line.

As a person that has been living with lupus my whole life I would tell you that if you let your lupus take control it will take over and you might not be able to fight it off. Having lupus is like always having to fight a different version of yourself. Now imagine fighting yourself, you know everything about yourself, so it can be a very hard to win the fight. Experience has taught me that I don't have to fight my lupus. I have to eat healthy, I have to stay balanced and work out on a regular basis. I should only be eating plant base foods and if I do eat meat I need to make sure that it is organic. When I was younger and the doctor told me all the things that I couldn't do and I felt trapped, I felt like I couldn't live my life the way I wanted and I didn't like that, as I got to learn and understand my body I see that my lupus doesn't control me, I control my lupus. I told my body that I wanted to live and I wanted to enjoy the beautiful planet that God created. Although I have had my moments for most of my life I have been able to live my life like a regular person. I have been able to go outside in the sun, enjoy myself and I was able to do so because of my will to want to live. I do have to take care of myself and I can't eat how people around me are eating, but I'm also very healthy and that is a blessing. I don't get colds, I haven't broken any bones. All my organs are working well and I have 20/20 vision. My body has been great to me and I am extremely grateful. my message to anybody that has lupus is that you have to stay grounded and balanced for the rest of your life. Not pursuing your dreams and living life to it's fullest potential can really kill you and make you sick. Speak and live your truth always. Pain and anger for us is our achilles hill. We must never hold on to pain and anger because it will make you sick. Also if you live in the city make sure you take trips into nature at least four times a month, living in the city with all the people and pollution can lead to you getting sick long term as well. You might not be able to relate to everything I am saying but I just wanted to share my story so that if you have lupus and don't understand what your dealing with that you have a better understanding after you read this article. To be honest weather you have lupus or any other type of disease, I think the human race should relook at how we consume food and what we are doing to our body and our planet. Food is suppose be used as a energy source not something you should indulge in. Everything that taste good is not good for you, pay attention to what you are putting in your body because a lot of the stuff we consume is not even food anyways. Please learn your biology and do your research on everything you put in your body. I love you and I share my truth so that I can inspireyou to be better. if you have lupus and this article didn't help you please feel free to fill out the sheet on my hotline which is located on the top of the home page on koolforlife.com. Put in your information and I will get back to you with the answer to your question. 

I end this by saying the best medication is filling your body with love and eating healthy and working out on a consistent basis. I pray for everybody that is reading this and just know that you can beat this thing called lupus. I am grateful for my lupus and I use to hate it because it made me so different, but now I have grown into the fact that I am different. I understand that my lupus has forced me to find inner peace and really create a better world for the entire human race. It has help me appreciate having and maintaining good health. Having lupus has made me love harder, give more and be a better person. I use my lupus as a tool and as I continue evolving one day I will be finish with that tool called lupus and It will finally be gone for good. Namaste to all, remember that your body is more important then your bank account, so treat it like a temple and not just a vessel. I specifically wrote this blog for people that are living with Lupus, but I think we all can learn how to take better care of ourselves inside and out. Good health is about being well balanced physically, mentally and spiritually. When you master those three things you will come to see that good health is a way of living , and that you should take care of your body until the day you leave this earth and it goes back to whence it came.