This week I had three very sad stories come to us.
It made me realise there are so many women, quietly, are just coping when something is going on inside of them that no one can figure out.
Take Viola,
She went to a GP that told her she was wasting Medicare’s money with all these test she’s having done. She knows intuitively, that something is not right. Her mum and sisters have been asking her if she has cancer or if she is dying because she looks so frail. Azra is only 38. She has a gorgeous husband and little girl that want their mum back.
She’s been getting lots of tests done, and knows something isn’t right because her insulin is way too low (potentially Type 1 Diabetes), her weight goes up and down by 8 kilos every month, her blood markers are up and down, but she remains undiagnosed.
She told us that in a thirty minute phone consultation, she got more information around what is going on and finally felt like someone really got that something was wrong with her and had a treatment that would work for her.
And Caroline,
She’s only 32 and feels exhausted every day.
She hates the idea of eating because she feels like she is going to be in pain for the rest of the day.
She has heart burn that is so viscous that each time she does eat, she needs to quickly pop a rennies.
She’s had fertility problems for the last eight years, resulting in three miscarriages.
Caroline went to the doctor six months ago complaining that she wasn’t her self and felt really exhausted . The doctors tested her at that time and tested her and diagnosed her with a UTI. (She didn’t have any UTI symptoms – just fatigue.)
A month later, sent went back to the doctor with the same complaint. The doctors tested her further and realised she had glandular fever. She was told to rest and she’d be feeling much better.
Then three months later, her periods were causing her to pass out with pain. She’s get nauseous to the point of vomiting the moment she got her period.
Caroline went back to the doctor, and this time, he did an ultrasound. She had adenomyosis.
And Bernie,
She has had IBS her whole life. She put on 60 kilos between 35 and 47. Six years ago, she decided to the the gastric sleeve.
It’s been a good decision she felt, because it helped her lose the 60 kilos of weight, but eight months ago, six kilos came on and she wasn’t doing anything different. she wet t the doctor devastated.
He prescribed her the weight loss pill. It started to kick in. She went off it last month because she couldn’t stay on it forever, and then eight kilos came back on.
No diet changes, no exercise changes. Everything exactly the same.
We hear this a lot. And this is a great place for us to help.
When you know that something is just not right and maybe the route you have been taken needs a different approach…
We look much deeper, looking at the gut, hormones, metabolic system, and micronutrients to unlock the root cause of the problem and help get you feeling like your old self (or better) again…
These beautiful women prompted me to share one of our patient stories about Isabel. She had a very similar journey and is really flourishing now.
Isabel’s Story…
Where Isabel started…
Isabel came to us back in November of 2022.
She had been to four integrative practitioners, and multiple GP’s between 2021 and October of 2022.
Four weeks after getting cv-19 in 2021, she developed full blown shingles from head to toe.
She went through shingles treatment, but didn’t feel the same…
She was always a fit and healthy person and had lots of energy.
But after cv-19, she was experiencing lots of aches and pains, digestive discomfort like bloating and IBS, and she had put on eight kilos.
None of it made sense to her because she was always a healthy, active person.
In 2019, Isabel had an IUD put in to help with her period problems, but didn’t think anything of the connections to her menstrual cycles or cv-19 or IBS.
She came to us because she saw our Peri/Post Bacteria Inflammation webcast and realised that everyone to that point was treating one thing or another, but not looking at the whole picture.
She’d done hormone tests, metabolic scans, DNA test, food intolerance testing, cultures testing. She’d done a colonoscopy and an endoscopy. She was regularly doing blood tests.
The only thing the doctor was finding was a sluggish bowel.
Alternative therapists had told her that her immune system needed help and she was had bad food intolerances, like she was reacting to nearly every food…
When we started working with Isabel, we quickly identified that her digestive lining was extremely fragile.
What we had to do with Isabel to address the problem…
Isabel did a parasite and bacteria test, and we also looked at how her gastrointestinal lining was functioning.
She also did a fresh round of comprehensive blood tests through Medicare.
Isabel had never been diagnosed with autoimmune condition, but her GI Tract markers indicated a strong similarity to coeliac disease. Her bloods pointed to high inflammation, very low nutrients, and insulin resistance. (Even though she was taking supplements, her body didn’t appear to have the nutrients it needed.)
Her bacteria test had really high levels of pain and nausea bacteria.
When she came to us, she was just sick of being so bloated and not being able to eat anything without feeling sick. And she got to a point where she’d eat and feel full after just a few bites.
But somehow she’d gained eight kilos.
Isabel needed a a bacteria weeding out process.
Within two months, she was eating way more food.
She was able to eat a variety of fruit and vegetables and meat. She was even able to eat crisps again.
(I’ve never met a patient more afraid of eating the wrong food as Isabel!)
Her gut secretion markers were really really poor. So she wasn’t digesting food properly…
Before we started treatment, her gut microbiome wasn’t function optimally.
This was a very big reason why she was having such intense periods back in 2019 (she had high inflammatory bacteria). It took the cytokine storm event of cv-19 to kick off the other inflammatory events that transposed in 2021.
It’s been four months of weeding and seeding and referring Isabel and her key achievements for her are:
- She’s hungry again. (Isabel ranks this number one.) She hadn’t felt true hunger for the last six years. And she’s craving carbs. She has a diverse range of foods that she can eat every day. And she feels comfortable. We have learnt what foods are really off limits, but it’s only a handful of foods. And we didn’t need to do a food intolerance test to identify it. We were able to go off her tests.
- She has easy bowel movements every day. Isabel isn’t bloating, uncomfortable, or constipated anymore.
- Skin is rash and irritant free. And she isn’t having any flare ups.
- Pain is completely gone.
- She’s back in her wedding dress, pre-children. Her weight just fell off.
It was two months of weeding out bad bacteria for Isabel. And there was one point where she had die-off symptoms, but we were able to manage them easily.
How Isabel is doing now…
Isabel is now at the stages where she is able to self manage with foods and her blood work has significantly improved.
After four months of weeding and seeding and reseeding, Isabel’s achievements she is most proud of are:
- She’s hungry again. (Isabel ranks this number one.) She hadn’t felt true hunger for the last six years. And she’s craving carbs. She has a diverse range of foods that she can eat every day. And she feels comfortable. We have learnt what foods are really off limits, but it’s only a handful of foods. And we didn’t need to do a food intolerance test to identify it. We were able to go off her tests.
- She has easy bowel movements every day. Isabel isn’t bloating, uncomfortable, or constipated anymore.
- Skin is rash and irritant free. And she isn’t having any flare ups.
- Pain is completely gone.
- She’s back in her wedding dress, pre-children. Her weight just fell off.
It took two months of weeding out bad bacteria with Isabel.
And there was one point where she had die-off symptoms, but we were able to manage them easily.
We spent two months strengthening her digestive lining so she could build up her immune system and get her digestion back on track.
Isabel is now at the stages where she is able to self manage with foods and her blood work has significantly improved.
The best part: Her GP didn’t recognise her when she came in because the last time she was just so unwell back in October.
Isabel is such a fun person. She has an incredible family and social life and has so much to live for. For nearly two years, she really tried to fix what was going on, and she was too uncomfortable to go out and play with her family. She’s back to being herself again.
Isabel is getting her IUD taken out next month. She is going to start pay more attention to her menstrual cycles, especially now that she’s in the middle of peri-menopause, coming into menopause. She now knows how to track her overall health.
What’s crazy about these women I spoke to this week, and, Isabel’s story is that their blood work is not quite dangerous enough on the outside looking in. But all of these women have a knowing that something isn’t right.
They feel like they are going around in circles, desperate to figure out the answer, or left to think it’s all in her head.
This is not the case.
Your body is giving you flare ups or other symptoms, to let you know that something just isn’t right.
That’s where we come in and can help.
We look at the full picture. From your metabolic markers to your bacteria, to your micronutrient levels, to find out why are things going and and help give you the “key”, figuratively speaking, to your body. So you know how to turn off symptoms or turn on your metabolism or turn up your energy.
Please don’t negate your symptoms.
Or just throw it in the too hard basket.
There’s a real chance that something else is going on…
I hope these stories inspire you to keep asking and listen to your intuition.
Or take forward action toward the next step for you.
We can help you too if you want a helping hand. If you’d like that, please organise a free introductory consultation with us here:
I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
Have a lovely day!
Warmly,
Tiaan
