Introducing: Chronique Living™

What is Chronique Living in the PNW? (CLIPNW)

[CHRONIQUE - chron·ic /ˈkränik/]

What is Chronique Living™ in the PNW? Located in Southern Oregon, this is a project designed around achieving optimum wellness through science, spirituality, and cannabis. When I first started thinking of creating a wellness platform, I had three goals in mind: to spread the word about the connections between our guts, brains, and autoimmune health; promote healing through the foods we eat, as well as taking my first steps into the world of alternative medicines.

How did Chronique Living come to fruition?

I haven’t always been drawn to holistic healing, or been so serious about gut health, but I have always been passionate about cannabis.

From smoking my first blunt on the streets of Las Vegas, to creating homemade cannabis tinctures, I’ve fallen in love with marijuana through and through. Smoking wasn’t always about healing—I just wanted to get high with a little help from my friends. Hot-boxing in my best-friend’s car during the summer of 2010 overlooking Oregon’s lakes and streams will always be a treasured memory, along with our endless nights of hysterical laughter. Nowadays, my best-friend of 11 years and I are scouring dispensaries for the REAL good-good: Relief from Our Chronic Illnesses. From tinctures to tonics, salves and bath bombs, we’re experimenting with everything we can get our hands on. With marijuana becoming legal across the States, now is the time to embrace the natural healing benefits of this incredibly beneficial plant.

While cannabis has helped countless individuals exponentially with numerous issues, it can’t solve all our problems. Over the past few years, I have developed detrimental chronic illnesses; I had fallen to the pharmaceutical companies, bloodied and weary from battling my ailments on my own. One bottle of pills turned into two, then three… it felt like a never-ending cycle of drugs being shoved down my throat. All the while, none of my problems were getting any better. None of my unexplained issues were given labels. All my tests were turning up normal, my assigned physician was blowing off my symptoms, and I wanted to rip my hair out.

I started to become sick more and more frequently in 2017. I visited so many doctors, and only one started leading me down the right path… a path I wasn’t expecting, nor was I pleased to take. This new doctor listened to me when others wouldn’t. He took serious note when I explained to him how I had been to the hospital for a swollen spleen; seen an optometrist about extreme photosensitivity to light; my hair was falling out and breaking off; I couldn’t pursue weightlifting due to inflamed and swollen joints; how the sun hurt my skin after just five minutes of exposure. He ordered multiple blood tests, and we learned that I was lighting up on the autoimmune spectrum like a firework. With the support of my family, friends, and my doctor, I started down the path of no return: I was being tested and possibly treated for Lupus.

With autoimmune diseases like Lupus [a chronic, autoimmune disease that can damage any part of the body, including the skin, joints, and organs inside the body (Maria Lourdes Villalba, 2019)], it can take three to five years before a patient suffering through unexplained symptoms will get an actual diagnosis. Over the past two years, I have felt so lost and unsure of what steps to take to heal my body. I’ve been in and out of the doctor’s office and the emergency room with multiple issues related to my autoimmune disease, struggling with chronic illnesses that have been creeping up on me, and silently attacking my body since I gave birth to my son in 2012. I have been fighting non-stop with my body for seven years, and I was starting to give up hope after every test ordered was turning up inconclusive. I was beginning to think there wasn’t anything that could heal my body.

That’s when I started taking matters into my own hands. I dragged myself out of my bathtub (where I spend most of my sick days) and down to one of our local libraries. I scoured the shelves for materials that would help me understand my body, and why it was failing me. At 26, I wasn’t ready to give up on myself. I couldn’t sit by idly while my body deteriorated before my eyes. I grabbed armfuls of books and began doing my own research.

The information I have learned through my extensive research is what has inspired me to create Chronique Living™. I am determined to share with you all these things I have learned about how our autoimmune systems function (there are four in our bodies—did you know that?), how our guts affect our brain health, what foods to eat to help prevent disease, and how cannabis can help us redirect our bodies back on the path of healing. It is my goal to help everyone achieve optimum wellness through scientific research, spiritual healing, and cannabis. Chronique Living™ is designed to aid individuals on their own personal wellness journey. Along with educational articles, we will be touching base on the latest information regarding chronic illness and autoimmune disease; providing delicious, wholesome recipes centered around healing and disease prevention; cannabis strains, recipes, and information; as well as advertising local artists, vendors, shops, and places to explore in the Pacific Northwest. We hope you stick along on our journey, and join us for the ride.

Instagram page coming soon.

References

Maria Lourdes Villalba, M. (2019, May 20). Lupus. Retrieved from Office on Women's Health.