Leena is a fellow health coach who came to me with digestive issues. She did not lack for good habits or a focus on health. But there was something missing from her self care routine because she ended every day with significant bloat and didn’t have the energy she should have for someone who take such good care of herself.
Leena purchased my 4 month testing and coaching package and it transformed the relationship with her health.
The tests showed that she had bacterial overgrowth in her small intestine and that her blood sugar was out of balance and her adrenals were depleted. There was signs of emotional or physical stressed based on how low her minerals were.
So Leena and I met to figure out what were the major stressors in her life. While she is a foodie that makes very healthy, home cooked meals, when she hung out with family she indulged in sugary treats. And she hung out with family 2 to 5 times per week.
Because she loved what she did and worked for herself, Leena also prioritized productivity over rest, and did not have good work boundaries.
While it is easy to brush off your bad habits as being ok, Leena got to see the effect her habits were having on her body. Depleting her immune system and hormones, destabilizing her blood sugar and throwing her nervous system out of balance.
The stress of her daily habits lowered her stomach acid and disrupted her motility, which is the leading root cause of SIBO.
By addressing her stress and lowering the food source of the bad bacteria in her small intestine, Leena was able to reduce her symptoms significantly and improve her tanked immune system so her body could take over the job of balancing the bacteria in her gut on its own.
Here are the changes Leena made that made the biggest difference in her SIBO symptoms:
She gave up gluten 100 percent.
She set up work boundaries to destress
Got better at saying no to people
She stopped eating processed sugar
She focused on regulating her nervous system with meditation, walks, red light therapy and boundaries around work and sugar that she felt good about.
She realized that it was her refusal to change her diet that kept her from getting better
“I asked myself how do I want to feel? Are my goals aligning with my actions?”
She’s no longer bloated or constipated. And instead of getting colds frequently she fights them off not. Her energy is much better and she wakes up in the morning ready to go, instead of foggy and heavy.
While everyone’s case is different and antimicrobials may be a needed part of the the plan, Leena’s story is important to share because it underscores the importance of looking at lifestyle and habits, instead of focusing all of you attention on dialing in the right killing protocol.
“It was empowering to look at the body as a system, how my stress played into how I felt. I figured out what was stressing my body the most and addressed that.”
While many of my clients are perfectionists and tend to do “all the things” to heal, it is easy to overlook the impact of health anxiety, food anxiety, overworking, micromanaging and rushing the process and not staying committed to your goals.
We all have different challenges that keep us from achieving total healing and the point is not to beat yourself up about it but to get really curious about the stressors that are impacting the body’s ability to heal.
Health is much more in your hands than you think it is.
When we stop looking for the quick fix and start looking compassionately and curious at the way we think, feel, believe, eat, work and connect, we can remove the blocks to healing and need a lot less supplements and herbs.
I too healed from a severe case of hydrogen SIBO with 1/3 of the recommended supplement dose in one quarter of the time I should have. It was because I focused on my nervous system, stress and lifestyle.
In my personal experience and experience with clients, these are the things that make the most difference.
Leena was generous enough to share her experience to help other people understand what is possible for them.
Watch the 25 minute conversation below.
Angela Privin is proof that IBS is NOT an incurable disease, but a cry for help from a gut out of balance. When the body AND mind are complaining, it’s an opportunity to examine what’s not working and change it. After solving her own IBS mystery almost two decades ago, Angela became as a health coach to help others. Angela uses root cause medicine protocols personalized to the individual to solve each IBS mystery. Her tools are lab testing, dietary changes, supplementation, subconscious mind work and nervous system rebalancing . Learn more here.