I’ve helped many clients recover their digestive health, and while their stories are different, I am thrilled that my client Selina agreed to share her recovery story.
While everyone’s path to health is persona, success stories inspire us to keep going and teach us what’s most important during that journey. Selina’s story shows that recovery is not an over night process and requires perseverance and a bit of trust.
After getting sick from the water in Mexico four years ago and then having food poisoning six months later at a Japanese hibachi, Selina Reyes Bronstein’s stomach was never the same.
To address the symptom of constant diarrhea, bloating and cramping, that followed, her doctors prescribed Cipro, which only made it worse.
Selina’s story is relatable. One day she was young and healthy and after traveling, food poisoning and antibiotics her gut was a mess. This of course added so much stress to her life and she felt alone because her doctors could not tell her what was wrong.
I can relate the trauma of dealing with a medical system that is not built to help you. My problems also started after a massive dose of antibiotics to treat Lyme disease.
The antibiotics just kept on coming. Selina was prescribed follow up rounds of cipro, and dicloxacillin for mastis after giving birth. She was given more antibiotics for a UTI she never had.
Selina was feeling anxious and sicker then ever when she found my website and reached out.
March 6, 2017 she sent me an email that said:
Selina’s recovery story
After all the insults of antibiotics, the stress of child birth and years of emotional wear and tear suffering from IBS, we were able to get the diarrhea under control.
We did several rounds of testing, implemented dietary changes, made some mental shifts and created a supplement protocols that addressed her multiple gut over growths.
As her gut began to feel better, her hormones, which were alarmingly low from all the inflammation and gut distress, began to come back.
Now she has energy and a stable mood. She can enjoy a more varied diet, travel,and live a normal, active life.
How we did it
The first step is to figure out the root cause, or the reason why Selina was experiencing these symptoms. And I was sure of one thing. It was not in her head.
The test results backed up my assumption. Her SIBO test was positive.
We implemented a natural SIBO protocol to support her gut as we balanced the bacteria in her small intestine.
We also tackled fear and anxiety around food.
Selina was so scared of eating the wrong thing that she consumed the same small group of foods daily. Under eating was another cause for her hormone crash.
She increased food variety and diversity and introduced some moderate FODMAP foods that she could tolerate.
Learning to diversify her diet and relax around eating improved her digestive function. And as her gut improved her anxiety diminished. Our relationship with food needs to be addressed along with diet and supplements.
IBS leads to fear and trauma around food. Our relationship with food must be addressed along with changes in diet and supplements.
Healing in layers
Selina’s story illustrates that the body/gut heals in layers.
When Selina’s retest showed her SIBO was cleared she was was feeling better but not totally there yet. She was still experiencing bloating at night.
After running the GI Map we learned the reason why.
We found yeast over growth, likely caused by rounds of antibiotics. She also had more pathogenic species in her large intestine than beneficial ones.
The test also showed low immunity, issues with fat malabsorption, and reactivation of the Epstein bar virus.
We addressed the yeast with antifungal supplements and added digestive enzymes with oxbile to help her break down her fats. To support her immune system we supplemented with a targeted probiotic strain as well as foods and supplements to support her mucosol lining.
Her bloating disappeared. She felt 85 percent better.
There was only one issue left to solve, she had become constipated.
Here’s where functional testing gets interesting. The body heals in layers and as one pathogen or overgrowth is resolved the next one surfaces. I find that most people with severe symptoms are dealing with multiple issues and must address each layer of pathogens that show up.
These pathogens don’t always show up at once. In Selina’s case once the Epstein Bar and yeast over growth were reversed, her immune system recovered and the bacterial balance in her large intestine improved, more infections came to the surface.
Her GI Map retest showed an h pylori infection. H pylori is a bacterial overgrowth in the stomach that lowers stomach acid and can lead to SIBO and constipation due to maldigested food particles.
Because her immune system was bouncing back we could finally get an accurate information about her gluten intolerance. And Selina is massively intolerant to gluten. The test showed high levels of inflammation from recent exposure from gluten.
Selina does not eat gluten regularly, but every 3 to 6 months she will take a bite of someone’s birthday cake and that is enough to send her system into long term inflammation.
She realized that from now on gluten needed to be avoided 100 percent of the time.
The test also showed that Selina was not consistently taking her oxbile supplements. This likely contributed to her issues with constipation.
We are currently starting a 2 month h pylori protocol to address the last of Selina’s symptoms and bring balance and resilience to her gut.
Lessons learned
Interestingly, Selina has been tested for h pylori multiple times by her doctor and the tests always came out negative.
False negatives, from tests that are not very thorough, do an extreme disservice to people with IBS, throwing them off the path of discovering and addressing their problem.
In my experiences, tests like the GI Map find things that standard medical tests miss (particularly yeast, bacterial overgrowth and parasites).
What we can learn from Selina’s story is how important it is to invest in the right testing.
She also demonstrated the importance of following through with each protocol, retesting and dealing with each layer of infection.
Patience is not particularly a strength of mine but it is essential for tackling IBS. Many people give up too soon, before their health break through.
Dealing with IBS is traumatic and there is so much uncertainty and the risk of trying and failing.
I failed many times to get better. But kept trying. Selina didn’t give up either. And she was willing to do emotional work along with the physical.
She was anxious but she didn’t let her anxiety run the show. Don’t let yourself be paralyzed by fear. Don’t settle for not getting answers. There is a reason you feel that way you feel.
When Selina came across my site she was at the end of her rope. But she had a good feeling, a gut feeling and she followed it.
I felt the same thing with the practitioner that helped me more than a decade ago.
Follow that gut, it may be ailing but it won’t lead you astray.
These days Selina is following her gut and her heart and planning on having another child.
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.