Episode 11: Alexandra Moresco

SHOW TRANSCRIPT

When Alexandra was stricken with Lyme disease, she shifted the focus of her Public Relations company to helping other Lyme sufferers and creating partnerships in pursuit of a cure. Alexandra adds her personal experience with chronic disease to building relations with media and patient communities. Her list of clients includes Nike, Complex Magazine and Facebook Watch-now. She has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for tick-borne illness research and over the past year alone has secured over 250 prominent placements with media readership equating to a billion viewers. 

During her interview with Bioenergetics Beat host Heather Gray, Alexandra describes her journey with Lyme; one that most sufferers will recognize. The ever-changing cast of symptoms, the denial of the medical community and lack of empathy encountered en route to a proper diagnosis along with enduring emotional and physical distress. With little help, she discovered people and protocols that restored her health; from amino acid infusions and lymphatic drainage to red light therapy and infra-red sauna.

Alexandra notes that even with a long-awaited diagnosis and regimen of modalities, patience is key as the body restores a healthy platform from which to offset disease. She cites NIKKI as a complement in improving effectiveness and speeding the process. 

Largely recovered and at this point in her journey, Alexandra expresses gratitude for an experience that re-focused her life and lifestyle across a spectrum of spirituality, emotional and physical therapies and diet.

Heather Gray: Thank you for joining us today on another awesome episode of Bioenergetics Beat. Hey there, I’m Heather Gray, a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and Certified Bioenergetic Practitioner. And this episode today is brought to you by NIKKI, Unleash the Wellness Within. NIKKI is a wearable non-invasive device that fits on your wrist.

Heather Gray: It’s a highly effective approach to optimize wellness and it puts frequency-based better life in your hands and on your wrist. Today’s special guest, we got Ms. Ali Moresco. She’s the founder of Moresco PR and the executive board of Project Lyme. And we’re gonna go dive deep into Lyme disease and all the fun stuff and not fun stuff that that is and all the different ways that we, you know, can overcome this together, right? Because the same tide raises all ships and that’s part of one of the beautiful things that this little device can do is help support folks with Lyme and mold and co-infections. And Ali has just recently doing some consulting work with us as well. And we just absolutely just thrilled to have her on board. So give everybody a warm welcome to Ms. Ali.

Ali Moresco: Thank you so much for having me. I’m truly honored.

Heather Gray: I’m so excited to have you on like I told you on our first like team meeting, I’m like I’m fangirling a little bit like I’m just so excited to see people, you know, who are just doing incredible things in the space because it’s desperately needed. Yes, you know.

Ali Moresco: Yes, you know it is and I, it’s been interesting over the last nine years.

Ali Moresco: Where like when I was first diagnosed, there really weren’t very many people doing things in this space and advocating and kind of stepping in and doing what needs to be done. So I’m really, really humbled and really, really proud when I look around now and I see people like you, people like Stephen, people in the advocacy space and the political space and the medical space, the research space that are kind of stepping up and like really taking care of this community and doing what needs to be done. That was non-existent eight or nine years ago. So it feels really good to see that.

Heather Gray: Absolutely. Hey, why don’t you go ahead and tell us a little bit about your journey and why you got into the Lyme space? Because most of us, I would say 99.9% of us in the Lyme space have a story.

Ali Moresco: Yeah, everybody has a story, right? And even though everyone’s stories are so, so different, they are eerily similar in some way, shape or form. So I always find it so interesting to listen to, but for a lot of reasons, I’m kind of an odd duck. I was young when I was finally diagnosed. So backtracking a little bit.

Ali Moresco: Looking back on when I got sick, and then eventually leading to my diagnosis two years later, I was just graduating college. I had spent quite a bit of time working at Nike, doing college research for them. Back at that point, I had a fashion blog before everybody and their mom and their dog and so on and so forth had a blog. So it was kind of unheard of at the time. And they had just opened a concept store in Lincoln Park, which is where DePaul is, which is where I went to college. And the whole purpose of this concept store was to see how specific demographics of women shopped.

Ali Moresco: At the time, they were really trying to look at how your college age girl shopped. And for some reason, they were only getting like Lincoln Park moms coming in to shop at the store and they couldn’t quite like figure out the disconnect. So I had done some work with them through my fashion blog, eventually joined their team, like in the middle of college. So it was very young when this happened, but really credit them with setting me up for what I do now. What I do now and for being as knowledgeable as I am now in the PR and communications space. And I say that because like so many people with Lyme and tick-borne illness, I was never one of those people that just like sat around and ate bonbons and partied in college and like did nothing, right? I was a very, very driven person.

Ali Moresco: And I had a lot that I wanted to accomplish. So by the time I was graduating college, I got a call from someone that I met through the Nike sphere and through the blog, my blogging sphere personally that said, hey, do you wanna come work on this partnership between Sundance Film Festival and Acura? And I was like, yes. So I started going and working at Sundance every year and that eventually led me into, through the connections that I made into starting my own celebrity and entertainment PR firm. So this was all in my last year of college.

Ali Moresco: Um, finally graduated college, all the things. And, um, about a year later, I went to Northern Michigan with my, um, he was my boyfriend at the time. Now he’s my husband of six years, um, with my husband and his family. And if you know me, you know, I have spent most of my life in cities. I am not a woodsy girl. I’m not like, uh, I’ve never been camping. We’ll never go camping for many reasons now, obviously, but not my thing. Um, but I still knew like, you know, to wear bug spray, wear tick repellent, wear a hat in the woods, all of those things, cause my parents are originally from, um, the East coast where tick-borne illness, Lyme disease is very prevalent. So, um, went to Northern Michigan for the first time for a week and wore bug spray, wore a hat, came home from Michigan to the city of Chicago and had cold and flu-like symptoms. And I started to get this spotted leopard rash all over my body that you can still see a little bit of nine years later and went to my GP.

Ali Moresco: And she said, oh, you’re fine, you have a summer flu. You have a summer flu, you’re fine.

Ali Moresco: Never got better. So every couple of weeks, I was in my GP’s office at a very large hospital system in Chicago saying, this is wrong, that’s wrong. And there was always an explanation, right? You have a stomach flu, you have food poisoning, you have a cold, you have a sinus infection, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So eventually, so this went on for two years and it really ebbed and flowed. Some days I was okay, some days I felt horrible, some weeks and months I felt horrible. I saw every specialist under the book. They misdiagnosed me with thyroid cancer. I had three biopsies of my thyroid. They tested me for everything from lupus to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma to Crohn’s, you name it. I was tested for it, never came back with anything. And then

Ali Moresco: Oh, I just realized I kind of missed an important piece of the story. But, um, when I had initially gone to see my GP, my mom went with me. Um, cause of course I was afraid and she had asked my GP, can you please test Ali for Lyme disease? Cause you know, like I said, my mom lived in New York, she lived in Connecticut, was very aware. And the GP said to my mom, anyone who tests your daughter for Lyme disease is a charlatan, and I will, I will never forget that. Um, and I know that I’m not the only person who has a story like that. I think a lot of people have very similar stories of, um, asking and being told, Oh no, you can’t possibly have that. Or it’s not real. Or if you do have that, you’re fine. It just has to run its course. So on and so forth. But anyway, ironically, two years later within this same hospital system, I saw, um, a different specialist, an ENT who looked at me and was like, I think you might have Lyme disease, tested me for Lyme disease at the Western blot. And on the Western blot, two years later, I came back positive.

Ali Moresco: And thankfully he knew enough to refer me to a tick-borne disease specialist, to a Lyme literate MD.

Ali Moresco: Um, and I started my, my treatment journey, you know, with that Lyme literate MD and was with him, you know, for years and years, and I really credit him with saving my life. Um, you know, had a pick line, did years of IV antibiotics. Um, I have six co-infections including Babesiosis and Bartonella, which can be very difficult to treat. Um, so I’ve kind of got like that perfect mix, you know, um, and, you know, eventually, unfortunately I pretty much became bedridden. I couldn’t get out of bed for about two years, you know, needed help get going to the bathroom, getting up, going up and down stairs, really couldn’t eat, um, lost the ability to swallow, had very severe brain, brain fog, muscle and joint pain was very weak, lost a lot of weight, um, was basically skin and bones. And also ironically, that’s when so many people would tell me that didn’t know I was sick. Oh my God, you look great. You look amazing. And that’s why I’m such a huge proponent of like, do not comment on people’s bodies, unless you’re like you’re glowing or like your eyes look healthy or like, I’m like, don’t tell me I look good because I can be at my sickest moment.

Heather Gray: That the fashion industry can be, huh? I mean, yes. Oh yeah. Back when that even heroin chic came out. So that reminds me of why I was so drawn to you and why I just think you’re such a cool kid is because I was in the hairstyle. I was a hairstyles for 15 years and was in the, I wanted to be in the fashion industry. I wanted to go to New York and ended up getting pregnant and doing the domestic thing, you know, down here. So you’re living, you live right. The lifestyle that I, that I was always looking for. So I was like, that’s why I was like, you’re such a cool kid that you got to do incredible stuff. But yes, how sad it is that once we start losing weight, cause we’re sick, people go, I know you look amazing.

Ali Moresco: I know. You look amazing.

Ali Moresco: I know it’s like no I’m on my death

Heather Gray: I’m like, no, I’m on my deathbed.

Ali Moresco: Yes, I feel horrible. My organs are shutting down, which did happen like my organs started to shut down and you know, I did all heart palpitations and you know, all these other things but

Ali Moresco: you know, like I said, eventually became better than had to stop working, you know, for two years. And, you know, it’s, I would never wish this illness upon anybody, not even my like, very worst enemy.

Ali Moresco: But it really did bring me, I feel like my true purpose in life, which is health, wellness, advocating for others, really deeply wanting to see a change in this system for people, even outside of those living with Lyme and tick-borne disease. You know, everyone with a chronic debilitating illness or rare disease is struggling and it’s not their fault. You know, it’s the system and it’s the lack of compassion, lack of understanding and, you know, within the medical system, the lack of

Ali Moresco: physicians and specialists being willing to look outside of the box when they can’t fit you in this neat little box with your symptoms that leads to lack of accurate diagnosis and so on and so forth. And

Ali Moresco: in this period of really not being able to work and not being able to get out of bed, I, you know, I, even then I struggle to sit still I struggle to not have a project, and that’s who I am to this day, even when I don’t feel well, you talk.

Heather Gray: I’ve talked about eerily similarities between folks and I have found the biggest people who have gotten tucked down with this aren’t the ones that were sitting down and eating bonbons. It’s that type A personality, burning the candle at both ends, right? They kind of seem a little bit more susceptible to catching these types of critters when they’re going around. So yeah, it’s definitely a common thread I’ve seen.

Ali Moresco: Yeah, I mean I think we run ourselves down, you know, and we just push and push and push and go and go and go. And eventually you do just burn out and your body’s like hey wait, I need a minute, like, cool it.

Ali Moresco: Um, but even when I, my body forced me to cool it, I really struggled with, um, quote unquote, doing nothing, even though I was freaking fighting for my life, you know, looking back on it, I wasn’t doing nothing, I was trying to stay alive, um, but you know, whatever. Um, but I ended up in my spare time that I now had, you know, sitting and researching organizations and nonprofits, um, and found one, you know, on the East coast and just like blindly reached out and was like, Hey, this is who I am. This is where I live. I’d love to get involved. I’d love to fundraise for you. Um, and didn’t hear back, kind of wrote it off. And then three months later, you know, heard back from them and they connected me with another patient in the tick-borne illness world, whose name was Casey Passon. Um, sadly she passed away six years ago. Um, and her and I went on to

Ali Moresco: raise a lot of money for this organization. We hosted their second and third largest revenue generating events for this organization for about five years. So raised a lot of money, met a lot of patients, participated in a lot of advocacy. And in this time, it really opened my eyes to the fact that I was not the only one with this story. I was not the only one who was told nothing was wrong with me, tick-borne illness wasn’t real. And that was just debilitated by this disease and the co-infections that comes with it. And I really realized that I had to do something about it and that I would never be happy unless I did. So going back to saying that I feel like this brought me to my true life’s purpose, like I said, wouldn’t wish it upon anybody, but I don’t think I would have figured it out otherwise.

Heather Gray: I’m like, what’s, I’ll ask people and I either get one or two responses. I’ll ask them, what are the gifts of Lyme disease? And I either get deeply, deeply embedded.

Ali Moresco: Yes, absolutely.

Heather Gray: Sadly, or I’ll get those folks like you and I that go, Oh yeah, no, it completely put me on a different trajectory that I am absolutely my purpose. I would never, you know, I was, I was a hairstylist that was a party girl. Like I didn’t have any higher calling. I just wanted to make the world beautiful and you know, it was crazy. And then now I’m like in this, in the deep trenches of saving, you know, helping save people’s lives. Like what a beautiful gift that is.

Ali Moresco: Absolutely.

Ali Moresco: Yes, absolutely. It is. And we need more people like that. We need more people like you.

Heather Gray: And you spreading the awareness and like I said being the cool kid because you’ve got a bigger audience than I do so that’s awesome. We’re going to actually break for a commercial right now but make sure you stick around to the very end because we have an amazing giveaway that you’re not going to want to miss. Stay tuned.

Heather Gray: Welcome back, everybody. Thanks for joining us again. And if you missed the first half, you missed a lot. Beautiful, amazing story, very common story of those of us that have had chronic illness, chronic Lyme, and some of the fun gaslighting that we’ve gotten from the medical world and just all the fun stuff that is Lyme disease. But I’d love to dig a little deeper into, you know, what were some of the things that you did that you found most helpful during your, you know, your treatment protocol, not just treatment protocol, because a lot of folks that I know when they’ve gotten better, it’s because they’ve put in all sorts of different foundations, right? And so can you talk to us a little bit of some of the stuff that you did on your journey?

Ali Moresco: Absolutely, oh my gosh, where to even start? So I love the expression when referring to Lyme and tick-borne disease treatment, it’s like peeling an onion, right? Because so many times when I was in the thick of my treatment, I would be like, oh my God, this isn’t working, this isn’t doing it, blah, blah, blah. And then when I would look back, I would realize all of these teeny little incremental improvements that I had made and the fact that they actually added up into these big steps forward. So if you’re listening to this and you’re like, oh my God, I’m in the thick of it, nothing’s helping, it’s hard not to think that way when you’re in it, but just know that really each and everything adds up. So I would say early on, after we figured out that I had Lyme and tick-borne diseases and after we figured out that I was a little bit more of a complex case than my first MD thought I was going to be, because initially I was told, oh, I was diagnosed at,

Ali Moresco: I was 21 turning 22.

Ali Moresco: you know, they had told me, oh, you’re young, you’re fine. You’re gonna be, you’re gonna be fine in six months. You’re gonna be done with this. And of course that is not what happened. So once they kind of figured out that I was a little bit more of a complex case, I would say the first thing that really, really made a massive difference for me was getting a PICC line and doing IV Rocephin. That’s really what took me from being basically bedridden to upright and able to, you know, get out of bed on my own and all of those things. So IV antibiotics really, really helped me. And I still, I get so many messages on Instagram that are like, oh my God, my doctor wants to put a PICC line in my arm or they wanna do IV antibiotics or whatever. And they think it’s the end of the world. And for me, it was a blessing.

Ali Moresco: you know, and it sounds so convoluted, but I have days still where I like miss my PICC line and the trauma that it took off of my body to receive medication. So IV Rocephin and a PICC line really, really helped. I did daily amino acid infusions that helped me a lot. I was finally diagnosed with dysautonomia and specific antibody deficiency. And on the dysautonomia piece, I mean, now for my care, I work with two doctors, one of them being Dr. Richard Horowitz, who I absolutely adore, who kind of figured out a cocktail of medication for me that really keeps my POTS in check. And most of it, honestly, I don’t even need anymore. And I’ll get to that piece of it. And then with the specific antibody deficiency piece, the treatment for that is immunoglobulin therapy. So it’s, you know, immunoglobulins, it’s from human blood donations.

Ali Moresco: and I infuse it subcutaneously once a week. And I think a lot of Lyme and tick-borne disease patients have immunodeficiencies and their doctors just don’t know to look for them. And patients are so adverse as am I to seeing like regular quote unquote specialists because they’re just not believed. And it starts this whole line of questioning around their tick-borne disease diagnoses. They just go undiagnosed from these immunodeficiencies. And I’m a big believer in it’s one of the missing pieces of the puzzle for getting better because if you’re feeding your body all these things and you’re killing and killing and killing.

Ali Moresco: but you’re not supporting your immune system, then what is supposed to fight the disease?

Ali Moresco: So I personally infuse Hisentra. That’s been a big help for me. And one of the things that’s really helped me to get better and has helped my body to be strong enough to fight. I just got finished doing Dapsone, Double Dapsone, and then Quad Dapsone with Dr. Richard Horowitz. And I have to say, it’s one of the things I feel like that has helped me the most in the last nine years. I’m pretty highly functioning now. I still have my days, you know, like we all do. And I still have a few more courses of Double and Quad Dapsone to do because my Bartonella is still hanging out, but we’ve cleared a lot of infection and I’m pretty highly functioning now. And I really, I can’t say enough good things about it. So I would say that’s kind of like the hard and fast medical category. And then, you know, I’m sure like most people, I do a lot of alternative therapy for maintenance. I do weekly lymphatic drainage. It’s a huge thing for me. I do red light therapy every morning and every night. It helps to wake my brain up. It helps with any kind of acne that I get from like the detox of actively treating. It helps my skin. It’s been shown to help with immune function, lung function, all of these things, because I have had COVID a few times. I also have an infrared sauna. I think that’s very, very important for detoxing our bodies, not just from regular environmental toxins, but also all the dead schmutz that’s like dying off, you know, when we’re treating. And I think that can really weigh us down and can be part of the reason that we’re not feeling better. And I think those are the main things. I’m sure I could go on and on and on about it for like another hour, because if you’re a tick-borne listener, you know, we’ve all tried a million things, but I’ll cut myself off.

Heather Gray: there. Well, and it’s it’s sad because we haven’t been listened to for so long. And you really do have to think outside of the box that I mean, there’s yeah, controversial stuff out there. And there was oh, yeah, one point, some of the stuff that I tried that people were like, I’m sorry, you’re doing what? But yeah, it was a lot of those things that actually moved the needle the most for me. So yeah, one of them would be like, so what’s been your experience with the Wave 1 or the NIKKI?

Ali Moresco: I was gonna say, you know, it’s interesting and like piggybacking off of everything I just said, you know, a lot of these quote unquote, controversial therapies are very, very heavily practiced and have been forever in other countries, you know, everything from ozone therapy to, you know, things like PRP and Prolozone and all these other things. But yeah, I would throw frequency technology in there. And it’s interesting because I connected with the founder of NIKKI back in March. And it was right after I was a guest on another very popular podcast that I’m very dear friends with one of the co-hosts, Tick Bootcamp, with Matt Sabatello. And I got to co-host an episode where we interviewed Dr. Michael Snyder of the Snyder Lab at Stanford. Like you really can’t get much more of a prestigious name than Stanford. And he has a whole lab that is dedicated to monitoring what is happening in our body. And a lot of it is tied to frequency. So that really opened my eyes to frequency and technology and like medical wearables, if you will. And then I met Stephen and who told me all about the NIKKI and all about the use of frequency and how these different frequencies can do these different things for our system and so on and so forth. And he was kind enough to send me one. And this is my favorite story to tell about the NIKKI. Most people that know me know I am not a good sleeper. I have never been a good sleeper even since before I got sick. I am absolutely an insomniac. And the first night that I wore the NIKKI,

Ali Moresco: I put it on the insomnia frequency and I was asleep within a half hour, which has never happened to me in my entire life has never happened to me. Um, so right there, I was kind of like, Oh my God, this, this works, like this is powerful. Um, and I pretty much have worn it every day since. And I tend to bop between the nighttime and insomnia frequencies. Um, I use a lot of the anxiety and stress frequency because I am naturally a very high, strong, like we were saying before type A,

Ali Moresco: anxious person. And it really does help. And when I have like my bad days, or I’m on my cycle, or whatever it is, you bet that I have that pain frequency, like strapped to my wrist, like nobody’s business. And they really do help. And they really do help to dull whatever it is that you need. So it’s it’s interesting. And I’m absolutely like a convert for life now.

Heather Gray: It’s funny. So when I met Stephen, it was on my podcast and I’m an entrepreneur at heart, right? Like to the core, I’m an entrepreneur. I work well with other people. So we don’t ask to work for other people. That’s like not, yeah, that’s not in my nature. But by the time we got done, I hadn’t even tried his product yet, but I had worked enough with Rife and other technologies to know what it was that he was, he was using in his product. And at the end of the podcast, when we were done, I’m like, I don’t know if you have a spot for me, but you need to find a spot for me. Like I have to be involved in your company somehow. And he’s like, I feel the same way about you. And then he sent me one. And it’s funny, because I hadn’t flared or had anything with Lyme issues for three years. And so I was like, I’m not gonna really feel much from this. No, I put it on and like my brain would be scrambled for a little while. And I’m like, what the heck is going on? And I’m like, Oh, I am having a slight Herx response. Like, yeah, interesting. And, you know, so my husband allergies, sneeze, sneeze, sneeze, I’m slapping him on, put allergies on every single time. It’s not just like this one time of coincidence. Every single time he stops sneezing. Like it’s insane. A lot of money. Yeah, been able to see save from allergy medications.

Ali Moresco: I just go, come on, and I’m like.

Ali Moresco: Yeah. And I, you know, I’ve heard that on the allergy setting from other people that it’s one of the few things that has really helped them and made a difference, especially this past season, where it’s just been horrible.

Heather Gray: Yeah, yeah, right with all the moisture that we’re getting across. I mean, Colorado, it’s like a record this year. At one point they said we actually need Seattle for rainfall. Oh my God, Colorado. I’m like, no, no, no, no, no. It’s not supposed to happen here.

Ali Moresco: Yeah, no, it’s been wild. It’s been bad.

Heather Gray: been bad. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, um, let’s go into a little more lifestyle type changes, right? And have you had to make, cause that’s, you know, I love that you talked about the alternative stuff, um, because you can’t, like you said, you can’t just focus on treatment. And that’s one thing. And what I love about the line bites conference that’s coming up is all those practitioners there for the first time hearing people not focusing on treatment. Yes. And so what were some of them like more of the lifestyle stuff that you put into place?

Ali Moresco: You know, it all goes hand in hand, and I really think you can’t do like one thing without the other when it comes to like Western alternative diet lifestyle changes, like you’re saying.

Ali Moresco: You know, it, tick-borne illness really flipped my life upside down, but it made me realize what really matters

Ali Moresco: in life. So it’s you know, it’s funny because I felt like before this and I still I’m a very driven person. I have my own company.

Ali Moresco: very, very driven. I want to achieve a lot in this lifetime, but now it’s not just all centered around work.

Ali Moresco: So I feel like the first big lifestyle change was living more of a balanced life.

Ali Moresco: You know, taking up things like meditation. I have a very non-traditional spiritual practice, you know, my, my bestie is a spiritual medium so like really opened me up to things like meditation and

Ali Moresco: things like frequency and sound baths and spiritual cards and really gut chucking like my intuition.

Ali Moresco: So it really made me more of a balanced person, and the fact that I like no longer live to work, it’s just a piece of my life that I enjoy and I’m really lucky and privileged that I can say that.

Ali Moresco: You know, I would also say it made me take up more things to do them just because I like them and because they bring me joy. You know, like I love to garden and things like Pilates. I do Pilates every single day. I have a reformer in my house and things like really wanting to be like flexible, elongating muscles, moving so nothing gets like stuck in my joints and my muscles and things like that. My tissues. Diet was a really, really big one. One of the first things that my initial doctor did after diagnosis was he took me off of gluten, dairy, soy, corn, and sugar, right? And I still, I know I still live by that mostly, but it has,

Ali Moresco: been modified quite a bit over the last nine years. And I think it’s, you know, it’s number one, I have a different outlook on how I eat and what I put in my body. And number two,

Ali Moresco: It has a lot to do with now that I’m healthier, my body can just handle more. So one of my favorite sayings is by the team at Case Integrative Health, where what they preach is that you live moderately so you can have moments of indulgence, right? So I wouldn’t say for me that anything is like completely off the table to put in my body, right? Like somebody is gonna cringe listening to this, but every once in a while, if I want like an ice cold, like Coca-Cola, or if I want a hamburger, or something that’s like, quote unquote, normal for most people to eat, but for me, I normally wouldn’t touch. You know, I eat it and I don’t feel bad about it. And I go back to my regular routine and it is what it is, but I’ve enjoyed that moment thoroughly, so it’s worth it. So, you know, that’s ebbed and flowed a lot. And now I, you know, I’m not completely gluten-free. It really depends on where the gluten is coming from, because I’ve noticed I do better with things like imported semolina flour from Italy than I do with gluten-free products. You know, you’d buy at the grocery store, Whole Foods. So I opt a lot now to either make my own things at home, like with that flour, or to seek out ingredients that are imported with that flour. So it’s not gluten-free, but it’s not the stuff that we’re normally eating here, right? And as far as dairy goes- As far as dairy goes.

Heather Gray: I realize there’s so many things illegal, illegal in the food system across the United States that we allow. So I could see how you would do better on a product that’s imported than something that’s here in the USA.

Ali Moresco: Well, and I noticed it, you know, I’ve spent a lot of time the last nine or 10 years with my parents in across Europe. And it’s funny because when we would go over there, I would quote unquote indulge in whatever I wanted to eat, but I didn’t notice any change in how I felt. And that’s when it really clicked for me. I was like, oh, I feel fine here. I can eat all these things and it doesn’t bother me and I’m not bloated and you know, I’m not running to the bathroom and whatever. So over the course of time, it’s really changed how I eat and like for example, imported burrata, I can eat imported burrata and I am fine. It’s a form of like mozzarella, but the inside is very like liquidy. It’s just it’s made differently. It has different proteins and different enzymes. So your body breaks it down differently.

Ali Moresco: But it’s interesting because if you buy like an Americanized version of it

Ali Moresco: it’s made completely differently and it won’t sit the same in your body. And I’m Italian, I’m Sicilian, and we’ve spent a lot of time the last handful of years with our family in Sicily. And that’s how I’ve learned a lot of these things is like really being in the thick of it and seeing how things are made and how different it is. But…

Ali Moresco: So all at the same, my diet has ebbed and flowed over time. And then when I started working with Dr. Horowitz last year, I really couldn’t eat a lot of things. I would get very bad stomach aches and very bad hives all over my body when I would eat certain things. And he was like, do you have MCAS? And I was like, no, I don’t have MCAS. Of course, what do I have, I have MCAS and no one had ever tested me correctly for it. So I went on a low histamine diet and I did that for about a year and my hives dissipated.

Ali Moresco: Over the course of last year, as I’ve done treatment, my body is stronger. Now there’s a lot of things that I can eat that I couldn’t eat before. For example, like all tomatoes for me a year ago, because they’re very high in histamine, complete no-go. Whereas now I can do yellow tomatoes, right? Because they’re lower in histamine, it doesn’t bother me. I still can’t do garlic at all. It makes me violently ill. So there are certain things that are kind of abnormal that I still can’t eat that are just specific to my body. But I will say if you have a lot of unexplained like food intolerance and no like allergies coming back, try a low histamine diet and see how you feel. Because for me, that has made the biggest difference, I would say.

Heather Gray: Oh, it’s hilarious too, because so often, you know, we get told that these foods are the healthy foods, right? Fermented foods, bone broth, I was doing all things, you know, as a functional practitioner, I was following like a Weston A Price, and I was making kefir, bone broth, I’m making kvass, I was making a salad. And man, within like two weeks, I was in excruciating pain, and my headaches were insane. And I don’t normally get headaches. And it turns out that I, I had the issues with the histamines and all those foods, the ferments, the leftovers, the bone broths are all high in histamine. So it cracks me up when anybody touts one thing as being healthy, because it’s not, you know, what’s one, you know, healthy to one person is poison to another. Yeah.

Ali Moresco: Yeah. And you know, that it’s a great point. And it’s kind of what makes me crazy about people and a lot of people online with these huge followings that preach and say, everybody should be doing X, Y, or Z, right? It’s like, yeah, it might be great for you. And it might be great for a percent of your followers or your community, whatever it is, but I just don’t think that there’s a blanket statement for everybody, right? Like, yes, I do believe bone broth, extremely nourishing. I still drink it when I’m sick or like when I had COVID or

Ali Moresco: things like that. And I just dealt with the histamine reaction because I needed something nourishing in my body. But like day to day, is it good for me? No, I shouldn’t be suffering from hives, right? Like day to day, let’s not do that. So yeah, I’m in complete agreement with you on that.

Heather Gray: Awesome, awesome. Well, man, thank you so much for taking the time today and sharing your story and, you know, giving people hope and the advocacy that you’re doing out there. Like, what is, what a blessing you are to this community and I’m just, I’m just so grateful to be on this journey with you and thank you for, like I said, teaching us a little bit more about your story and what you’ve been through. Do you have any last thoughts, any last lingering nuggets you want to land on us?

Ali Moresco: You know, if you have Lyme or a tick-borne disease and you are struggling or you feel isolated, please just know that you are not alone. There are a lot of people out there like you. Look for communities. You know, I know Heather mentioned it earlier. I’m lucky enough to sit on the board of Project Lyme, right? And they help fund support groups like places through Generation Lyme. And there’s a really, really strong Instagram hub of patients. So like search the hashtag LymeDisease hashtag and send DMs and connect with other people. And I’ve found some of my very, very dearest friends through this community that I’m so grateful for. So if you’re feeling alone, send me a message, look on Instagram for people. There’s people that wanna support you and wanna connect. So just don’t lose hope. And I’m proof nine years later, you know, that you can get healthy. It takes some time and that’s okay. And there’s nothing wrong with that. So anyway, just wanted to share that.

Heather Gray: It’s funny, as, uh, as we’re speaking today, I was undiagnosed for over 27 years and on my Facebook memory, it was 12 years ago today that I finally got my confirmation of Lyme disease. So that’s where I’ve been on this journey and man, all the different layers of that onion, I feel back. It’s incredible. And yeah, for the world. Cause like I said, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today. So very grateful. And if you heard anything, any inspiration, any hope, make sure that you like subscribe and share this type of knowledge, right? That’s how we end up spreading hope around the world is with your help. So make sure to like subscribe and share. And then while you’re at it, if you want to get, learn more about the NIKKI products, you can go to, we are Nikki.com backslash podcast, and make sure to use the code bio beats for 10% off. Also, I alluded to this before, but we’re going to do a giveaway because we just love you guys so much. And we’re just so excited to be able to give back to the community. We’re giving away a NIKKI every episode. And so you’ll want to make sure that you go to the show notes and follow the directions there on each episode on how you can win your own NIKKI not NIKKI with Lyme, but the base model NIKKI, which helps with energy helps with sleep that Elliot talked about. It’s got that allergy setting, the pain setting so much more. But the details on how to enter that will be in the show notes. So make sure that you check that out and enter to win.

Heather Gray: Good luck and have a healthy day.

Frequently Asked Questions

How has Moresco Public Relations contributed to Lyme Disease Awareness Month and the global Lyme community?

Ali Moresco’s personal experience with Lyme disease has steered Moresco PR to play a pivotal role in Lyme Disease Awareness Month. Through her efforts, the company has fostered awareness and support within the global Lyme Alliance, significantly impacting the Lyme community.

What makes Ali Moresco’s approach to healthcare PR unique in dealing with public figures and patient communities?

With her background as a “professional patient,” Ali brings a unique perspective to healthcare PR. Her company specializes in connecting public figures with patient communities, using her firsthand knowledge to build empathy and understanding, particularly in the realm of tick-borne illnesses.

How does Ali Moresco’s work in talent relations and fundraising impact research on tick-borne illnesses?

Ali’s talent for relations and her extensive network, including clients like Nike and Facebook Watch-now, have been instrumental in raising funds for tick-borne illness research. Her active lobbying and leadership roles in organizations like Project Lyme exemplify her commitment to this cause.

What lessons has Alexandra learned through her journey as a Lyme sufferer and how has this influenced her professional path?

Alexandra’s journey as a Lyme sufferer has taught her the importance of patience and resilience. These lessons have reshaped her professional path, leading her to focus Moresco Public Relations on health and wellness communications, aligning with her personal experience and dedication to helping others in similar situations.