Constantly tired, catching every bug going, long COVID, too knackered for a social life.
Here’s how I helped my client to:
- get oodles of energy back,
- stop getting sick all the time,
- get back to an active social life,
- get much better sleep quality and
- reduce her medication intake.
My client an exhausted, city-based, IT consultant came to me having been diagnosed with a number of health issues (Long COVID, Hashimoto’s, Hypertensive, Elevated Blood Sugar, Elevated BMI, Metabolic Syndrome).
Every aspect of her life was being impacted. She had barely left her home in a year as she battled all the debilitating symptoms.
She had been a regular at the GP surgery for years. She was frustrated that her medication intake seemed to always be increasing, and didn’t result in an improvement in her symptoms.
Upping the dosage just wasn’t cutting the mustard.
She wanted answers. She wanted her life back.
Here’s what I did using the functional medicine approach.
- Took a detailed case history and a timeline.
- Reviewed her current lifestyle and dietary intake.
- Did a comprehensive blood, and stool test.
With functional medicine, we look at the root cause. With my client, tests revealed that there were a number of micronutrient deficiencies that meant her energy levels were on the floor and her immune system was sub-optimal – meaning that she caught every bug going. Most alarmingly, some of her blood results revealed that she was at a high risk of having a heart attack or stroke. And she was pre-diabetic due to elevated blood sugar.
Poo talk is nobody’s favourite conversation, but I had an instinct that there was a gut issue in the mix! So we explored that and revealed a dysbiotic microbiome (bad bacteria) and a parasite.
Armed with the data from the test results I created a targeted programme for her.
It really has to be targeted to the individual. With a busy schedule, it’s tempting to just grab a bunch of supplements from the health food shop and hope for the best. BUT to get back to optimal health we need to look at the individual needs. With my client, we discussed what she could realistically do and implemented step by step.
The first thing we worked on was sleep. She was sleeping less than 6 hours a night which has awful consequences for your health. I then implemented the 5-R programme for her gut (remove, restore, repair and reinoculate and rebalance). I did this through supplements at targeted dosages. We addressed diet and removed potentially inflammatory foods. We increased the colours in her diet, adding more fruits and veggies, and we increased intake of good fats. We put a stop to snacking and encouraged her to get moving after meals. This is a secret weapon to get your body to uptake sugars after you eat.
At the end of 6 months she was able to reduce her medication, her blood sugar had reduced to within a healthy range, the marker for heart attack and stroke had reduced and her waistline had reduced. Best of all she was able to get back to an active social life, getting out and about with her friends and family.
My client’s story shows the power of functional medicine and the body’s ability to heal itself when given the right conditions – the right nutrients iin the right amounts and addressing detrimental lifestyle factors.
For anyone who has been struggling with sub-optimal health for months on end it can leave you feeling exhausted. You feel like you’re not firing on all cylinders, and when that pack of multivitamins you grabbed isn’t doing the trick – you know it’s time to take a proper look at what’s going on under the hood.
I truly believe that with the right guidance, you can get back to optimal health.
At the moment I’m offering 30-min free calls for anyone wanting take the mystery out of their health journey and start reclaiming their energy and quality of life.
Book a free, no-obligation call with me and we’ll see if this is the right step for you right now.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Brianan
