The Lipedema Summit is hosted and created by Erika Schlick, a certified health coach, author, blogger, and founder of The Trail To Health, a platform dedicated to helping people navigate complex chronic health conditions.

For more than a decade, Erika has documented her personal health journey while interviewing doctors, researchers, and practitioners across many areas of integrative medicine.

Her work focuses on one core mission:

helping people better understand their bodies so they can make informed decisions about their health.

That same philosophy ultimately led to the creation of the Lipedema Summit.

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A Health Journey That Changed Everything

Erika’s work in health education began with her own battle with chronic illness.

In 2012, after a camping trip to Yosemite, she developed a mysterious illness that would take years to diagnose. After visiting doctor after doctor and undergoing countless tests, she was eventually diagnosed with Lyme disease and multiple co-infections, along with several autoimmune conditions including Hashimoto’s disease, Celiac disease, psoriasis, and alopecia.

For years her symptoms were debilitating. There were periods when she could barely get out of bed, could not work, and struggled with extreme fatigue and neurological symptoms.

Determined to understand what was happening in her body, Erika began researching treatment options, documenting her experience publicly, and eventually pursuing integrative therapies that helped her regain her health.

After years of treatment, including stem cell therapy using her own cells, Erika was able to bring her Lyme disease into remission and return to an active life.

Her journey inspired the creation of The Trail To Health, where she shares her experiences and interviews experts to help others navigating chronic illness.

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Early Signs of Lipedema

Although Erika would not receive a Lipedema diagnosis until 2024, she can now recognize signs that appeared much earlier in life.

As a teenager and throughout her twenties, she noticed certain physical characteristics that never quite made sense. Her legs were always larger than the rest of her body, and her knees appeared padded with little visible kneecap definition. She often joked about having “thunder thighs,” assuming it was simply part of her natural body shape.

At the time, there was no reason to suspect anything more.

Like many women with Lipedema, the condition remained largely unnoticed and misunderstood for years.

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When Symptoms Became Aggressive

After recovering from Lyme disease, Erika underwent stem cell therapy in 2016, which was instrumental in helping restore her health.

However, not long after the treatment, something unexpected began happening.

Her body started changing rapidly.

Weight gain began appearing in patterns that did not make sense. Despite clean nutrition, exercise, hormone testing, thyroid support, and numerous medical interventions, the weight continued to accumulate—primarily in her legs, arms, and torso.

The changes were dramatic and confusing.

Her legs felt heavy and swollen, her body composition changed, and nothing she tried seemed to reverse the progression.

For years she visited doctors, ran lab tests, adjusted diet and lifestyle strategies, and experimented with numerous treatments, yet no clear explanation emerged.

It would take nearly eight years before the real cause was finally identified.

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The Diagnosis That Explained It All

In early 2024, a physician mentioned Lipedema, a condition Erika had never heard of before.

As she began researching and connecting with the Lipedema community, she immediately recognized the patterns.

The symptoms, the swelling, the hormonal relationship, the lymphatic involvement, the disproportionate fat distribution—it all finally made sense.

Three different doctors confirmed the diagnosis: late Stage 1 / early Stage 2 Lipedema.

For the first time, the years of confusion had an explanation.

You can read Erika’s full story here:

→ Erika’s Lipedema Journey
https://thetrailtohealth.com/blog/my-lipedema-journey

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Turning Experience Into Education

Following her diagnosis, Erika underwent several lymph-sparing liposuction procedures, working with leading surgeons who specialize in Lipedema treatment.

The results were life-changing.

But the experience also reinforced something she had learned through her Lyme journey:

patients often struggle to find clear, trustworthy information when facing complex conditions.

Much of the information about Lipedema online can feel fragmented, technical, or difficult to interpret.

That realization inspired Erika to take the conversations she had been having with doctors and researchers through her podcast and expand them into something larger.
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Conversations With Leading Experts

Through The Trail To Health Podcast, Erika has interviewed numerous clinicians and specialists discussing Lipedema, including topics such as:

• diagnosis and staging
• lymphatic health
• surgical treatment options
• long-term management strategies
• metabolic and hormonal factors

These conversations eventually became the foundation for bringing many of those voices together into one place.

You can explore Erika’s Lipedema podcast conversations here:

→ Lipedema Podcast Episodes
https://thetrailtohealth.com/podcast/category/Lipedema

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Why Erika Created the Lipedema Summit

The Lipedema Summit was created to bring together leading experts, clinicians, and patient advocates in one place to discuss the condition in a clear, educational format.

Rather than fragmented information scattered across the internet, the summit provides structured conversations designed to help attendees better understand:

• how Lipedema is diagnosed
• conservative care strategies
• surgical options and recovery
• long-term health considerations
• emerging research in the field

For Erika, the summit represents something deeply personal.

It is the event she wishes existed when she was trying to understand what was happening in her own body.
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