“Why doesn’t anyone know about this?” Allison wondered.

For 10 years, Allison Samon had searched for relief and answers and tried what felt like every type of practitioner and modality to ease her chronic pain, migraines, fatigue, and hormone imbalances.

Finally, a muscle therapist asked what she had for breakfast. In that moment, it seemed like an odd query. But she would soon learn that that question—and the answer—ultimately led her back to health.

These days, she’s pain-free, has plenty of energy for her day, and became a mom in her early 40s. She feels better now than in her 20s.

“I’m actually able to do all of the things I couldn’t do,” she says. “They told me I would never run again. They told me I could never be off of the pill. Not on the pill, able to run up and down stairs. I don’t have any joint pain. I’m not on any medication.”

Progressive Pain

Allison’s pain had started in college. She was sidelined after a fellow skier barreled into her—leaving her with a knee injury.

She recovered, or thought she did. But running a 5K soon triggered the pain again.

“This time I wasn’t recovering and I was limping way more than I should for somebody so active and so young,” she recalls.

Worse, the pain seemed to be spreading. Her feet were numb and even sitting down hurt. Soon, migraines began as well, along with unusual fatigue and hormone imbalances.

In her 20s, she was on three medications: for chronic pain, migraines, and birth control.

Around that time, her father died unexpectedly of a heart attack at 50—as a seemingly healthy and active man. The pain medication she took had warnings related to heart health, leading her to stop taking it.

“It was pain management. It wasn’t solving the problem,” she says. “It wasn’t honestly looking for any root cause and the pain just progressed throughout my body over time.”

The Healthy Breakfast That Wasn’t

That began Allison’s pursuit of answers and pain relief, which would take her to what felt like every type of practitioner possible: orthopedists, neurologists, acupuncturists, physical therapists, Reiki practitioners, homeopaths, and chiropractors.

“I tried every lotion and potion,” she says.

When the muscle specialist asked about her breakfast, she reported back: a bowl of cereal, a glass of orange juice, and a multivitamin.

“He was the first person to introduce me to this crazy, newfangled concept called nutrition,” she says. “I didn’t realize that wasn’t actually a very healthy breakfast at all. I had no idea, but I was following conventional wisdom.”

He explained that the foods she ate could be causing inflammation that contributed to her pain. In particular, he pointed to sugar. An eight-ounce glass of orange juice could contain 20 or more grams of sugar.

Allison worked long hours behind the scenes in television production, where most of her peers smoked, and drank soda and cup after cup of coffee. But Allison avoided most of that in an effort to be healthy.

Sugar, however, was her vice. After all, Skittles and Swedish Fish were fat-free.

“[Sugar] is not something your body knows how to digest,” she says. “It’s all chemicals and sugar. So I was on this blood sugar roller coaster. When I took that out that was hugely powerful for me.”

 Refining Her Diet

To improve her diet, Allison began with one food at a time. By simply removing orange juice, she noticed she didn’t have pain the next day.

Soon, it became a game. What else could she subtract or add to feel even better? Every meal became a chance to experiment with the impact on her body.

After sugar, she cut dairy and found her hormones were more balanced and her acne went away.

Testing turned up gluten sensitivity. After she stopped eating gluten entirely, her regular constipation stopped.

“I never thought that I had a gluten problem because I didn’t have bloating and gas,” she says. “Guess what? Gluten sensitivity, any sensitivity, can manifest in different ways in different people.”

High Energy, No Pain

By eliminating inflammatory foods from her diet, Allison ended all the chronic pain, migraines, fatigue, and hormone imbalances. As she experimented, she occasionally cheated with sugar, gluten, or dairy, and found that her symptoms would return.

It wasn’t all about removing foods. She also bolstered her diet with more whole foods.

Noticing her high energy levels, those around her began asking Allison what she was doing and why she ate the way she did—leading her to go to nutrition school and a new career as a Certified Holistic Health Coach and Functional Nutritionist.

As she got healthier, Allison also realized she was running out of time to have a baby. She had originally gone on the pill to regulate her periods and control acne and had been on it for 17 years.

She went off the pill and was surprised to pick right back up with regular cycles again—which she attributes to her clean eating. Allison and her husband also reduced the toxins in their environment to set themselves up to get pregnant and have a healthy baby.

She went on to conceive within three months and have a healthy pregnancy—delivering her baby at 42.

A Resilient Body

While having a baby is one of life’s biggest joys, it can also be a trauma on the body. That, compounded by the pandemic and losing the family’s beloved cats, led Allison’s health to dip again. Her hormones began to fluctuate and belly fat crept on.

Looking to course-correct, Allison ran some tests and uncovered leaky gut, or intestinal permeability. That can happen when an unhealthy gut lining develops holes, allowing partially digested food, toxins, and bugs to penetrate the tissues beneath it.

She followed the steps she knew to heal her gut, including avoiding gluten cheats and taking supplements to help rebuild her intestinal lining. And again, she saw her hormones and health rebound.

Allison has seen the power of food firsthand. But as a nutritionist, she doesn’t recommend a specific, prescribed diet. At a minimum, she encourages clients to avoid some of the top inflammatory foods, such as gluten, dairy, and sugar.

As a health coach and nutritionist, she understands the challenges firsthand and is committed to helping others turn around their health.

“Who knew that your body can keep getting better?” she says. “When I was 25 I thought my life was over like, this is done. I didn’t have any hope. I was waiting for somebody to come and save me and fix me… We can not only recover, but completely course-correct and feel better, even though we’re getting older.”

You can find and follow Allison on her site or on Instagram at @healthallie.

Listen to my podcast interview with her on Rebuilding My Health Radio:

If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like: Reversing Crippling Rheumatoid Arthritis Naturally.

The Steps That Helped

  • Identifying inflammatory foods—Pinpointed sugar, gluten, and dairy as triggers for her chronic pain, migraines, and hormone imbalances.
  • Eliminating sugar—Removed sugary foods and drinks like orange juice, Skittles, and Swedish Fish to reduce inflammation.
  • Cutting out gluten and dairy—Discovered gluten sensitivity and balanced her hormones by eliminating gluten and dairy from her diet.
  • Diet experimentation—Took a step-by-step approach to removing or adding foods to see their impact on her health.
  • Healing leaky gut—Addressed intestinal permeability with strict avoidance of gluten and targeted supplements to rebuild her gut lining.