I’ve been working with one of my personal training clients on his health issues since I became an FDN., we’ll call him Mr. X. Mr. X has been taking a prescription medication for acid reflux, has other GI issues and complaints of brain-fog, lack of energy, not feeling right, tired in the afternoons, and several other issues.
He already eats pretty well, with no processed foods, more fish than meat or poultry. Mr. X trains with me twice per week, swims, and does yoga. He also sees a massage therapist, an acupuncturist, and a chiropractor regularly. He looks like he is in great shape, yet he suffers from the issues I mentioned above and is also prone to musculoskeletal injuries and slow healing.
Mr. X has been seeing a functional medicine doctor as well as his GP, and they haven’t been able to figure out (I‘m sure the GP hasn’t really tried) what is causing all of his issues.
I had him run our standard labs: cortisol, DHEA & sex hormones, GI Permeability (Leaky gut), Liver function, and gut pathogens. The labs came back and showed he has H. pylori (a nasty gut bug that can cause ulcers and cancer!) E Coli which is a bacterial infection (a different strain than what you hear about on the news in regards to food recalls), enterococcus (another bacteria) and yeast!
He also tested positive for leaky gut, liver dysfunction, and trouble breaking down proteins.
No one else has found anything because they didn’t look beyond his symptoms, or they didn’t dig deep enough.
He has the choice of whether to go back to his GP for treatment or follow the protocol I will develop for him. This is what I referred to in my last email as the Opt-in model of health care.
I fully expect to be able to get rid of the gut bugs and take care of his leaky gut, which in turn will help his body to heal itself. He should no longer need the prescription for his GERD, and he should start to feel better, think more clearly, lessen his tendency for muscle strains, etc.
In general, his body should return to an optimally functioning state of health. It may take 90 days or more because it can take a while to get rid of the gut pathogens. We will re-run some of the labs to make sure the bugs are gone and monitor his other symptoms to make sure his body is healing itself.
I made no diagnosis; I made no claims. I ran labs, saw the results, correlated them to his symptoms. I will recommend a course of action that includes dietary changes, better sleep strategies, ways to reduce stress, and smart supplementation designed to allow his body to heal itself. His exercise routine is already in a good place, so he won’t need to make any changes to that. For many people, modifying their exercise habits will play an essential role in their journey to self-healing.
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Update. I got the results of his cortisol and sex hormones back and designed a DRESS protocol for Mr. X. As part of the protocol i compared his current supplements and prescriptions to the supplements I recommended for him to make sure there would be no interactions between them and also to see if the current supplements and prescriptions have side-effects that might correlate with his symptoms. I did find that his GERD medicine and the low dose statin do have side-effects that matched up with some of his symptoms.
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