26 Doctors, 0 Answers: How to Advocate for Your Health

What do you do when your body is screaming but no one can tell you why?

That’s exactly where Lisa Roers found herself after waking up one morning in excruciating pain—unable to move her neck, bend her legs, or walk without help. Over the next two years, she saw 26 doctors, including a multi-day trip to Mayo Clinic… and still left without a clear diagnosis or treatment plan.

Here’s the thing: no one is more invested in your healing than you. And learning to advocate for your health might be the most important skill you ever develop—especially if you’re dealing with autoimmune issues, chronic symptoms, or vague conditions the system isn’t set up to catch.

Lisa’s story isn’t just inspiring—it’s a roadmap. If you’re feeling dismissed, overwhelmed, or stuck in the “what’s actually wrong with me?” spiral, here’s what you need to know.

What Does It Mean to Advocate for Your Health?

Advocating for your health means taking an active role in your own healing—asking questions, challenging assumptions, doing your own research, and trusting your lived experience even when a professional says “your labs look fine.”

It’s not about rejecting medicine. It’s about refusing to be a passive passenger in your own body.

For Lisa, that meant no longer waiting for a doctor to hand her the “right” diagnosis and instead choosing to heal her body by addressing inflammation, toxins, food triggers, and stress from the ground up.

Why the System Isn’t Built for Complex, Chronic, or “Invisible” Illness

If you’ve ever walked into a clinic and felt rushed, dismissed, or told to “just manage the symptoms,” you’re not imagining things.

Here’s what Lisa’s experience revealed:

• The traditional model is acute-care focused. It’s excellent for broken bones, infections, and trauma. But it often falls short with autoimmune conditions, chronic inflammation, or anything without a clear-cut lab result.

• Time is limited. Most primary care visits are 15 minutes. You might have waited 3 months for that appointment—and you’re getting 1/100th of the doctor’s attention. That’s not a formula for deep investigation.

• Symptoms without a name (or reported by a woman) get minimized. If your pain, fatigue, rashes, or brain fog don’t fit a textbook definition, it’s often chalked up to stress, hormones, or “just getting older.”

Your Genes Are Not Your Destiny (Let’s Talk Epigenetics)

One of the most empowering lessons Lisa discovered? Just because something “runs in your family” doesn’t mean you’re doomed to live with it.

Enter: epigenetics—the study of how your environment and choices affect how your genes express themselves. In other words, your DNA loads the gun, but your lifestyle can pull the trigger.

This means the food you eat, the products you use, the stress you carry, and even the thoughts you think can influence whether certain genes get turned “on” or “off.”

Lisa used this knowledge to clean up her diet, ditch seed oils, support her gut, reduce toxins, and build habits that actually helped her body heal.

6 Ways to Start Advocating for Your Health Today

You don’t need a diagnosis to get started on the road to wellness. Here’s what it can look like to step into self-advocacy right now:

1. Document everything

Keep a symptom journal (apps can be really helpful for this!). Track your food, sleep, stress, and flare-ups. This gives you real data to take into appointments—and helps you notice patterns before they become full-blown problems.

2. Ask better questions

Instead of just “What’s wrong with me?”, try:

• What systems in my body are under stress?

• What could be triggering this response?

• What’s one thing I can try to reduce inflammation?

3. Be willing to seek second (or 26th) opinions

If a provider isn’t listening, validating, or helping you move forward, it’s okay to move on. You’re not “difficult.” You’re discerning. And you deserve real answers, not dismissals.

4. Don’t wait for permission to heal

Lisa didn’t need a final diagnosis to make changes that helped her body feel safe again. Start with food. Start with rest. Start with getting honest about what your body is asking for. You likely already know a few things that need to change.

5. Watch what you normalize

Just because your labs are “normal” doesn’t mean your symptoms are. If you’re exhausted, inflamed, in pain, or anxious—something’s up. You’re not imagining it.

6. Remember: your body isn’t broken. It’s asking for something.

Lisa didn’t blame her body—she started listening to it. Symptoms are messengers; learning to interpret them is part of the advocacy process.

What Lisa Did That Moved the Needle

Here are some of the practical shifts Lisa made that helped her start healing—without waiting on a doctor to bless the plan:

• Cutting out seed oils (canola, vegetable, soybean, grapeseed, etc.)

• Eliminating sugar and flour to reduce inflammation. After the first 7 days, this gets easier!

• Moving more—even when her joints hurt, she focused on gentle, regular movement to keep her lymph system flowing

• Cleaning up her personal care + household products to lower toxin load

• Mindset work—gratitude, faith, and nervous system regulation became part of her daily routine

  
  

No magic pills, just small shifts, repeated over time, with radical commitment.

Final Thoughts: You’re Not Crazy, and You’re Not Alone

If you’ve ever been told “your labs are fine” while it feels like your body is falling apart, you’re not alone.

And if you’ve ever wondered whether it’s worth pushing for better care, better answers, or better support—the answer is yes.

You are allowed to take up space in that exam room.

You’re allowed to ask follow-up questions.

You’re allowed to say “this doesn’t feel right.”

And you’re allowed to start healing even if no one has given it a name yet.

You are the expert on you. Never forget that.

Connect with Lisa Roers

Want to learn more about Lisa’s story or the work she’s doing through LeadingLIFE Online Coaching and the Sunshine Cafe Podcast? You can find her at LisaRoers.com or listen to her show wherever you get your podcasts.