Photos and more detail on my website
AmiCietta Clarke is a motivational speaker, writer, certified holistic health and empowerment coach, and attorney…plus mom to twins! After overcoming a rare autoimmune disease by changing her diet and lifestyle, AmiCietta founded Clean Body Living, a holistic health coaching practice.
AmiCietta and her family escaped the coup and civil war in Liberia when she was 12. Liberia is the only Black state in Africa never subjected to colonial rule. It was established on land acquired for freed U.S. slaves by the American Colonization Society. AmiCietta can trace her family’s history in Liberia to her great-grandfather, who moved to Liberia from Little Rock, Arkansas, when he was five. “I have roots all over the African diaspora.”
Her family lost everything when they escaped the country, fleeing with just a suitcase each, and eventually settling in New York City. AmiCietta has returned to Liberia a few times since leaving. She got to meet the first woman president of Africa, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Moving to New York was a rough transition. The class sizes were overwhelming, and AmiCietta encountered discrimination from other kids and school officials, who didn’t think she was an A student. AmiCietta showed them when she got a full scholarship to Cornell.
In her final year of law school, she was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a rare autoimmune disease. Her first symptom was blurred vision, which she first experienced when driving back to law school. She already had a job lined up at a big New York firm. She worked at a fast pace for eight years while experiencing blurred vision. She didn’t tell anyone at work, because she didn’t want to be treated differently.
She took immunosuppressant drugs for four years until her doctor said he didn’t want her to continue because of the side effects. Then she took steroids for two years. Preparing for surgery to remove her thymus gland, she had to stop taking the steroids…and it got worse. In addition to the blurred vision, she couldn’t move her fingers and she had trouble walking.
The doctor wanted to put her back on the steroid, but AmiCietta worried about the side effects, including diabetes, osteoporosis, and glaucoma. “He told me I didn’t have to worry about them because I was young. I was 31, and I was on a low dose.”
When she went back on the steroid, her symptoms cleared up…but just months later, she was diagnosed with osteoporosis at 32. “For me, that was a real turning point...that set me on the journey I am now.”
A naturopathic physician helped her taking steps to heal. She changed her diet, eliminated dairy, began eating organic, and reduced environmental toxins. Now AmiCietta has been medication and symptom free for ten years. “Traditional medicine definitely has its place, but it doesn’t help the body heal.”
In addition to her full-time job as an attorney, she started Clean Body Living. She’s also writing a book, in her spare time!
“When you’re going through a chronic illness, you don’t think there’s anything you can do. Your doctors tell you, take your medication, come back to me in three months. I want people to know there are so many things you can do that can help you to get better.”
The story of grit and resilience AmiCietta finds inspiring is her mom, Vera, who did everything she could for her kids and family.
“Just imagine, you’re in your 40s, you lose everything, like all your money, all your worldly possessions except a suitcase, and you have to pick up and provide for your family.”
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