Is it my hormones? my cortisol? my thyroid? or am I going crazy, doc?!

It was March of 2022 and a young man in his late 20's was sitting across from me asking me these questions. He had been dealing with anxiety, insomnia, fatigue, uncomfortable gas, bloating, and frequent eructation for several months. 

Truthfully speaking, this sentiment is very common with a lot of my patients. It's total mayhem- a plethora of symptoms. 

So what is it? It usually is not just one cause. The good news is that most of the time, we can take action to remediate the issues. And it doesn't usually take extreme actions. My approach is to first gather the history- what does your day-to-day look like? what do you eat? what do you do before bedtime? how is your stress? etc. Then I do an extensive lab analysis. For others I also do gut testing. Then we go over the results and decide from there what the next stems are. 

But here's what interesting, the longer I am in practice, the longer I realize that one of the main driving forces for this plethora of symptoms is a nervous system that is stuck in high alert. You may have heard of this as the "fight, flight, freeze and fawn response." And I know what you're thinking- "it can't just be that I am stressed" or "but I am in therapy and I do breath work." In the beginning I struggled with this concept as well. But it wasn't until I was thrown into a loop of terrible, constant, ever-changing symptoms, that I was able to understand this. More on that later. Now one thing I can say is that I am blessed to be in the medical field because I was able to get to this "diagnosis" a lot faster than others. My blood work and imaging were healthy but my brain couldn't tell. And yes, I did benefit from a few supplements, not to cure anything but to aid in nutrient deficiencies and additional general support.

However, for a lot of people their blood work does come back with needing some sort of temporary support. For others, their driving factor went on for too long that they did have a hormone imbalance, or a low thyroid function, or blood sugar instability and at that point did benefit from treatment long-term. Each case is different. But the goal here is to support the body in all the different areas so that you actually get to living a healthy and fulfilling life. It is possible! 

For the young man that I mentioned in the beginning, his lab results were relatively normal. He tested positive for Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). This is literally an overgrowth of bacteria in his small intestine. The cause of it? You guessed it, his stress. Please note that this is not the only cause for everyone, but it is a common one. What helped? One, treating the overgrowth with a combination of herbal antimicrobials and antibiotics, a biofilm disruptor, motility, and repairing his gut lining. Second, retraining his brain and supporting his nervous system. 

Life and health can feel very overwhelming but it doesn't have to be that way. It's usually not that complicated given the right knowledge and tools. I wrote this free short guide called- Simple Rhythms for Healthy Living, to give you a framework. Download it, implement it, and tell me what you think! Stay connected for the latests blog posts and updates!

Remember what John 10:10 tells us- the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I (Christ) came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I believe this to be true for every believer in Christ. Claim it for you! 

In love and health, 

Dr. Nallely Ibarra