Book Review: Nourish, Heal, Thrive by Rika Keck

Nourish, Heal, Thrive: A Comprehensive & Holistic Approach to Living with Lyme Disease is a complete nutrition guide to your Lyme journey.

I knew I was going to relate to the text when I saw the opening quote:

"You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice." - Unknown

The author of the book, Rika Keck, is a certified in Applied Clinical Nutrition, Metabolic Typing Advisor, and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. She founded a company called NY Integrated Health LLC located in New York City. According to her website: "It is her belief that eating well, taking responsibility for healthier lifestyle choices, feeling well, looking great and operating from inner balance can result in motivation, empowerment and achievement of long-term goals."

The Introduction to Nourish, Heal, Thrive discusses how patients with chronic Lyme disease struggle to get a diagnosis and the challenge of getting proper treatment.

"One patient suffering from chronic Lyme expressed that she felt she was becoming a shadow of herself and that she was slowly dying."

Most people who have been through this experience can relate to the sentiment, but the goal of the book is to help you find hope through diet and lifestyle changes.

Rika's philosophy is to remain neutral about medical treatments, such as, antibiotics vs. herbs, because the choice belongs to the patient. She says, "My intention is not to tell you how to treat or cure your chronic Lyme and the coinfections. Instead, this book is geared toward building resilience so you can tolerate your medical and alternative therapeutic protocols for your sickness." 
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Early in the book Rika writes, "There is no such thing as a perfect diet. We are all different." The rest of the book details how to find the right diet and detox program for the reader.

Each chapter has a different topic related to mind, body, spirit healing, such as "Eat for Energy" and "Action Steps to Optimize Digestion and Absorption."

I found the chapter on the landscape of persistent Lyme to be very interesting. One of my favorite quotes was, "Being in balance, with acute stress followed by rest, is called healthy stress adaptation." It's a good reminder that following emotional or physical stress we must rest in order to integrate challenges into our body in a healthy way. In this chapter Rika provides a detailed "Toxic Exposures Checklist," which was helpful; however, there were some "toxic exposures" that I was not familiar with and would've liked a more detailed explanation, such as "surgical scars on the body" and "drink iced drinks or cold water with meals."

There was also a valuable chapter about blood sugar issues and hypoglycemia, which I think could be discussed more in the Lyme medical community.

The most interesting information I found in the book was in the last chapter where she compared foods as "friend or foe." She highlights foods like dairy, oxalates, nightshade vegetables, and fruit. Some diets recommend a food, while others claim it will bring you harm. In this part of the book, Rika does a good job of showing both sides, so the patient can be an informed consumer.

Rika's writing style is pleasant and friendly, making this an easy read. The knowledge in the book is a lot to digest and spans the basics through advanced nutrition.

This book is probably not for people who have their PHD in Lyme treatment. I would recommend it for those with a more recent diagnosis and needing some comprehensive knowledge on how to nourish, heal, and thrive.

"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great." - John D. Rockefeller