“Leaving the U.S. Saved My Quality of Life” — Woman With Lupus Said Living in America Makes You Sick

A woman suffering from an auto-immune disorder said that an interaction between her and her doctor led her to believe that moving out of the United States would ultimately be better for her lupus.

Rania (@knowthingss) posted a viral TikTok where she detailed how she informed her doctor she was moving overseas (Qatar) and how she was initially taken aback by how happy the medical professional was upon hearing the news.

"Guys I kid you not I went to my rheumatologist and we were talking and I was like yeah I'm probably gonna move overseas very very soon and he looked at me and he's like you're moving? And I was like yeah I'm pretty sure I'm moving overseas in a couple of months and he got up and hugged me and I was like, OK?"

She delineated what happened after the unprompted physical response from the doctor.

"And he was like I'm so happy for you please email me and tell me if your lupus gets better or goes away and I was like, hahaha yeah America does cause a lot of health issues and exacerbates autoimmune diseases because you know autoimmune diseases are exacerbated by environmental factors like pollution and s--t food and bad microbiomes and antibiotic use and stress and so like yeah moving out would probably like help."

The TikToker continued, "Because it would reduce those environmental factors but not to the extent that I, my rheumatologist would hug me and tell me, give me his email and tell me to email him and tell him how it's going because he anticipates that my autoimmune disorder is gonna like go into remission or just vanish."

Rania went on about how excited her doctor was for her to move out of the United States: "And he kept saying I'm so happy for you I'm so happy for you this is the best decision you're ever gonna make you're young this is the right move, don't look back, don't hesitate I think you should do it and he was so excited for me."

"Which is very telling and he's a very old rheumatologist and he actually is the head of rheumatology and he is very knowledgeable and wise and very experienced and for him to just like get up and hug me and tell me that it's the best decision I'm ever gonna make and to literally like make sure that I have his email to email him about how my lupus is going to go into remission and I leave is wild to me and is very telling of what America is doing to our health."

She went on to discuss how awful she thinks it is to live in America:

"Not to be the conspiracy theorist who's like the government is poisoning us but, we are over-medicated and unwell. We are undernourished and yet obese. We are mentally unwell. We're running, running, running, and yet we're staying stagnant. We don't sleep well. Our habits are just terrible here."

"And everybody has high cortisol levels, so I mean yeah and if you didn't know like the United States is kinda the hub of autoimmune disorders there were 10 many years ago and just in America we've developed over 100 kinds and we have the highest incidents and prevalence rates," she said while sharing a screenshot that seemingly supports the statistics she just referenced.

The National Institute of Health penned in 2020 that "autoimmunity may be rising in the United States" and in another study the outlet stated that while "life expectancy and survival rates in the United States have improved dramatically over the past century, Americans live shorter lives and experience more injuries and illnesses than people in other high-income countries."

Rania went on to blast the state of health for citizens in the United States: "That means we have the most amount of people with autoimmune disorders and we have the highest amount of people, the most amount of people being diagnosed with autoimmune disorders every single year. So, I'll keep you updated."

One commenter who replied to Rania's video stated that ever since they left the states they've been experiencing a much better quality of life in Greece and Thailand: "I’ve been in Greece and Thailand since September. My fibromyalgia is so much better. My pain level has gone from 7 to about 3. Occasional aspirin."

Rania expressed some trepidation about making a big move, however, and questioned whether or not there was a barrier to getting jobs overseas if someone didn't speak the language: "Do you speak the languages? Has that been a barrier because that’s something I’m afraid of especially for employment"

The same TikToker responded that despite not speaking the local languages they were having a decent enough time getting by: "No. Hello, thank you, goodbye, and toilet (‘toilet’ is understood everywhere). I’m planning on teaching English as 2nd language in Chiang Rai."

One person wrote: "The new American dream is to be able to afford to leave it!"