About me

Chronic illness doesn't start the day you get diagnosed.

It starts years before, in the small signals your body sends that you mistake for stress, for tiredness, for something that will pass.

By the time you have a name for what's wrong, you've already been living with it longer than you realize. And once that diagnosis comes, the real challenge begins: figuring out how to live with it, every single day. What to eat, how to rest, when to push through and when to stop.

Asmaa Gad, smiling, seated on a light sofa, one hand in her hair.

I didn't choose this work by accident.

I grew up watching chronic illness shape the lives of the people closest to me.

My mother has rheumatoid arthritis. Her symptoms started at least ten years before she was ever diagnosed. If someone had explained to her how stress was affecting her body, and what was happening in her gut before the damage set in, her journey could have looked very different.

My father started with diabetes, and later he developed heart disease as well. He was never really in touch with his own feelings, and I think that is part of why he kept living the way he always had, not the way his body needed him to. No one looked deeper with him either. By the time the damage showed, it was too late to undo it.

That's what brought me to this work. Over 8 years of working with people living with chronic illness and chronic pain, I kept seeing the same thing: people weren't taught how to read what their body is telling them. Most of us grow up learning to push through, not to pay attention. And by the time the diagnosis comes, the signals have been there for years.

But here's what my clients discover every time:

You already know your body better than anyone else.

I help you understand what it is telling you.

That's what OwnMyIllness is about. No one knows how your illness affects your life the way you do, but you don't have to figure it out alone. I'm here to help.

Asmaa Gad

  • Certified health coach, Institute for Integrative Nutrition
  • Ran a pain management clinic
  • Over 8 years with people living with chronic illness and chronic pain
Institute for Integrative Nutrition, certified health coach badge

No one should live for years with questions nobody answers.

Or keep quiet about what their body is saying until it forces them to listen. If you are ready to understand your illness and start changing it, book the call. We begin with your story, at your own pace.

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