Hey everyone! This is Coach Melissa here to share a recent personal story with you. It’s a big deal to have recovered from Multiple Sclerosis! To be 8 years symptoms free! I have worked very hard to get well….and stay well. The truth is, as long as we are alive, things can happen in our health journey that can stump us…even me as a Functional Medicine Practitioner!
A goal for me this spring was to lose weight. I’ve not ever focused on a goal like that so this was a first time experience for me. I hired a gifted weight loss coach who is also a Functional Medicine Practitioner and we began our work together. After overhauling my food intake, optimizing my supplements to support my body well, and creating more movement in my life, I still wasn’t losing weight and was discovering little annoying issues….like more than normal fatigue.
What?!?! I began investigating and chose to go see my practitioner. He discovered I had SIBO. I would have never have guessed…..because I had NO symptoms!
Let me explain SIBO. It is Small Intestinal Bowel Overgrowth. Literally, when the intestinal walls are inflamed, particularly around the ileocecal valve which is the “doorway” between the small and large intestines, this door can’t close and seal well. It is designed to be a one way valve, allowing digested food particles and waste to flow FROM the small intestine INTO the large intestine. Both the small and large intestine are inhabited with a flourishing microbial world…but the species living there are different because they have very different jobs. The problem happens when the IC valve, the “door”, isn’t able to seal well and microbes from the large intestine sneak through and enter a very different world in the small intestine, filled with a banquet that they aren’t used to! This creates in imbalance in the microbial world. Good guys on the wrong side of the “door”!
When our bodies are fighting an imbalance like this, we are NOT going to be in the place to lose weight. Losing weight is what our bodies do when they are in “safe” mode and not at war! I began immediate treatment with herbs and IC valve massage. Two weeks later, I had lost 10 lbs! That was what was standing between me and my goal of weight loss.
Is this you? Do you have strange lingering symptoms that don’t seem to make sense? Access our Free Symptoms Analysis form. Fill it out and submit it. We will sit down with you and help you make sense of what is going on for you. 💗 Coach Melissa
