My Personal Story (Part II)
The resolution
Last week I shared with you some health challenges I was facing at the start of this year. I finished that post expressing my dissatisfaction with the approach my general practitioner took. As with all conventional medicine approaches, my GP was looking to treat my symptoms, but not actually the root cause of those symptoms. So I took matters into my own hands and sought out a functional medicine doctor.
My functional medicine doctor’s approach
Upon sharing my symptoms (allergic reactions 🥵, low mood 😔 and frequent illness 🤧), she decided to run a couple of test and referrals. 1️⃣ I did a blood test (with several dozen markers), 2️⃣ a stool test, 3️⃣ she encouraged me to get my home checked for mold and 4️⃣ she referred me to a functional dentist.
Luckily, there was no mold in my home!
The dentist replaced an old filling made of mercury ☣️ with porcelain.
The stool test came back showing room for improvement in my overall gut health but nothing major or alarming such as a parasite, infection or bacterial overgrowth.
🩸 It was the blood test that pointed us most directly to the source of the issue.
It showed I had high homocysteine levels, which directly corresponds to B vitamin deficiency. B vitamins are essential for a process called methylation. Methylation serves the body in several ways but most notable for me was its impact on my immune system 🤧 and mental health 😔.
The solution
Given my symptoms and the results from my blood work, my functional medicine doctor immediately started me on B vitamins and a number of other supplements to improve gut health and immunity 💊. (You might remember from a previous post that 70% of our immune system lives in the gut!) Luckily, B vitamins are water-soluble and I’m not exaggerating when I say my low mood resolved itself in five days!
I haven’t had an allergic reaction in months. I did still continue to get a cold or flu about every six weeks over the next few months but I was recovering from them way faster than I ever have. I’m now very happy to say I haven’t gotten sick in over 3 months! (The gut, and therefore also the immune system, doesn’t heal itself overnight so it makes complete sense that it’s taken months, rather than days, for it to strength.)
But the question remains: why did my health start to deteriorate in the first place?
The answer to that is a bit more complicated and unknown. I’ll be addressing it in the third and final part of my personal story series next week. I’ll also shed light on why this relatively simple solution of supplementation worked for me and why it isn’t always that simple for the average patient.
Warm regards,
Donelle