Judy’s Story

Judy first came to see me because she felt miserable over her entire body.  She had been to numerous doctors with very vague complaints like fatigue, upset stomach, cold hands and feet, brain fog, low energy, thinning hair, almost no sex drive and insurmountable stress.  Several doctors looked at her thyroid function and told her it was normal; but no one really found anything wrong that they could diagnosis.  So a couple of them decided that she was depressed and put her on anti-depressant medications; which didn’t help with a single symptom.  After several years, multiple doctors, multiple medications and medication changes, she was referred to me.  She had no idea what Functional Medicine was, how it worked and the only reason she was here was because a good friend had referred her to me and she decided that it couldn’t hurt to see me, but she didn’t expect anything to help her. So, I explained to her how FM is different, what I look for and how our protocols were different from conventional, allopathic doctors.  She finally agreed to some specific testing that I believed she needed.  Once the tests came back and we found several barriers that were preventing her body from functioning normally, as well as some nutritional deficiencies, we started a therapeutic protocol that was designed specifically for her needs.  Within a week, Judy was feeling like a different person.  When I first met Judy, I thought she was in her late 50’s or even mid to late 60’s – she just looked old.  But the next time I saw her, after her protocol started, she looked much younger and revived.   On one appointment, Judy asked me when she could stop her medications and I told her to make an appointment and talk with medical provider who had prescribed her medication.  You see, some meds you can come off easily and other you need to be very careful how you reduce or stop those medications and I wasn’t qualified to make that determination. So a few months later, I am sitting with a new male patient who had been referred by his wife and there came a knock at my closed door.  But instead of waiting for an answer, this woman comes walking in.  I was actually a little startled that a stranger would just walk into my office, but I soon found out that it was the wife of the gentleman I was seeing, but to my greater amazement, it was also Judy.  She had transformed into a vibrant, young looking and attractive woman.  I was simply stunned; I didn’t recognize her at all.  She came in and explained that she went to her medical doctor and he told her that she could never come off of her drugs and that nothing an alternative provider could give her would make any difference – she was simply having what he called, “a placebo effect.”  She thought the protocol was working, but her medical doctor said it was all in her head – just like her depression.  So Judy simply stopped her meds, on her own, and she immediately started feeling even better than she had while she was taking my protocol along with the meds.  I told her that was dangerous, but I was very excited and happy that she had responded so well.