Patient Story – 56 year old woman’s fatigue, weight gain, & diagnosis to 20kgs lost, loads of energy

Happy 2023!

We headed back into the clinic around the 31st of December and it’s been full of excitement and challenge already.

I have much to share, and lots of half-written articles that we will have ready for you in the coming weeks that I think you’ll really enjoy.

To start, I want to let you know that we’re going to work extra hard to help share patient stories, tests, and results so that you can see how our process works and empower you to either provide us with an opportunity to support you through your journey. Or to learn how to start asking different questions to get answers to what’s happening for you.

This will be in addition to research, hormone findings and new information we feel you should know about when it comes to reproductive, metabolic, and gastrointestinal health.

So many women come to us after trying loads of different diets, medication, various forms of exercises, weight loss surgery, or even surgical intervention to help their symptoms.

Last week, we spoke to twenty-five women who were tear-ridden, feeling they’d tried everything, and were completely lost and without hope.

This is why today, we’ve decided to share why an in-depth look at more than just reproductive issues, the endocrine system, or digestive discomfort.

Maryanne’s Journey to dropping 22kgs & Getting her Energy Back!
Maryanne came to us thinking her hormones were just completely out of whack.

She had been diagnosed with

• Hypothyroidism
• High Cholesterol
• Insomnia
• Fibromyalgia, and,
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

She was taking:

• Thyroid medication
• Cholesterol medication
• Sleeping pills
• Pain medication, and
• Antidepressants.

But she was still suffering.

She was swelling up like a balloon during the day.
She would literally put on 2-3 kilos of fluid from 8am to 11pm.
She was absolutely exhausted and thought perhaps she had Hashimoto’s.
And her key reason for coming to us was for weight loss.

When we started pulling back the layers in her initial blood work, we realised there were several big issues:

• She had constipation – where she’d not poo for 2-3 days at a time.
• The fluid retention was reflective of at least 3 kilos of her weight.
• Her body wasn’t converting a lot of the medication she’d been taking

We see a lot of patients that have been diagnosed with hypothyroidism, Hashimoto’s or hyperthyroidism.

They still feel all the symptoms, but when they get tested with the medication they come up normal. Even though they feel like they should be taking more to feel better.

The reality is that when we look at the bloods, nutrients, and symptoms we pull together the puzzle pieces. For Maryanne, we found that her TSH was looking within normal ranges, but her body was struggling to deliver her thyroid hormones to all the cells in the body.

That was just what was happening with Maryanne’s thyroid…

What was bubbling underneath was a bigger story.

Something wasn’t right with her digestive health.

The microbiome is key to balance and chemical regulation in the body. The microbiome sits in the digestive track and releases nutrients and removes toxins and bile from the body.

There’s another email I’m writing to help simplify the microbiome – so I won’t go too deep on this today.

However, if there is a trouble with nutrient dispersing or clearing hormones or bile leaking bacteria [in the body] that is intended for the bile, it disrupts the hormone superhighway.

For Maryanne, this was a big part of the puzzle for her.

When we pulled Maryanne’s stool analysis (see images below), we found 3 key factors:

1. She had major opportunistic bacteria driving extreme fatigue.
2. The Bloating & Fluid Retention Bacteria was extremely high.
3. Her Metabolic Bacteria were extremely low or in deficit.
4. The Weight Controller & Insulin Regulating Bacteria was non-existing in her bacteria.

Now I share this with you because so many people think that weight can just be hormonal. Many women are told to accept weight gain because it’s a part of old age, or, a genetic obesity co-factor.

BUT, if you don’t have the metabolic bacteria to support the metabolism and release and regulate the endocrine system. And your microbiome is spiking insulin to try to achieve balance, it’s next to impossible to lose weight.

At first, when we looked at Maryann’s blood tests, we identified that we needed to support her thyroid hormones convert to the cells, and she was low on key nutrients that would help her to feel more energised, and, more alive.

See Maryanne wasn’t just overweight because she was hypothyroid or a couch-potato.
And she wasn’t an indulgent chocolate cake and potato chip eater either.

But her body wasn’t working in a way that promoted healthy metabolic function, let alone to support the medication that was was taking.

Sharing the stool results with Maryanne was an emotional experience.
She finally felt validated and knew that it wasn’t just all in her head.

Maryanne’s Results

Within weeks of treatment, Maryanne was back out walking daily and her energy came back to her. She had given up because she’d be exhausted for 2 to 3 days after a few kilometers. She shed four kilos within the first three weeks of treatment and her daily bloating completed ceased. He face went from extremely puffy to defined – just because her body wasn’t in protection mode. Within four months of treatment Maryanne lost a total of 22 kilos. She actually surpassed her goal.

Maryanne’s Treatment Plan

1. Nutrient Intervention + Hormone Balance
   First we had to support her with nutrients to support her metabolic pathways to do the job needed to bring back her life force and vitality. This took about 5 days to kick in and made a huge difference in her attitude and energy.
2. Weed Out the Opportunistic Bacteria that took over
   We also needed to bring down the opportunistic bacteria that had taken over her microbiome and knocked back her metabolic bacteria array to below deficit.

FULL DISCLOSURE:

During this phase, Maryanne did have to make dietary modifications, because as you hopefully can appreciate, we had to create an environment where the antimicrobial treatment needed to do it’s job without interference.

3. Increase Good Bacteria & Bring Balance to the Gut Flora
   Then we brought back good bacteria balance and shifting into a less restricted nutritional phase, where we brought food balance across what she ate on a daily basis to enable the microbiome to rebuild.

At this point, Maryanne had the most significant weight loss.

Because we reset the bacteria levels, and, her metabolic system was doing its job.
So she was burning off excess weight and her insulin was dropping.

Now, remember Maryanne had never been diagnosed with diabetes, or even insulin resistance. But her insulin was one of the key factors for her weight gain.

Six months Later

Maryanne and her doctors have significantly reduced her thyroid medication. She was able to come off her antidepressants, fibromyalgia medication, and cholesterol medication.

For Maryanne, what on the outside looked at the time a woman who had lost hope, we were able to look at a much deeper picture of what was going on in her body and get control back in her hands.

We’re now in the final phase of Maryanne’s treatment and we’ve helped customise her must-have foods on a daily basis and she’s able to enjoy life and food – even the bad ones.

We find as women, we’re so quick to blame ourselves. It’s so sad to have to accept that everything is just going to be hard and an uphill climb forever when we get blood results back that say we’re doing okay now – whether you are on medications or not.

I remember when I felt so defeated with normal blood work, post babies, and an extra 25 kilos before I started, barely walking without feeling totally winded.

We then, go on these extreme will power driven exercises to exercise more, diet more, then when we only lose a few kilos it leaves us feeling so flat and devastated that it didn’t work. And our cravings, woah they are intense, but we have to have the will to get the weight off this time. We have to be more driven.

I’m here to tell you that if you are feeling like that.

If you are feeling like Maryanne did.

When there’s other symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, a diagnosis, constipation, bloating.

If you are still experiencing symptoms after medication.

There may be a lot more to it, and we can help you get to the cause.

We have a really comprehensive training on “The Body Quadrant: How to Shift from Fat Storage to Fat Burning”. We walk you through the process of elimination to ascertain what’s causing inflammatory, digestive, or metabolic dysfunction. If you are wanting to learn more, I encourage you to join us for that training here:

If you just want help, and just want to jump the queue, please organise a Free Introductory Consultation with us here:

We look forward to sharing much more with you soon.

Warmly,
Tiaan