Testimonial - Long Standing Chronic Fatigue / Long Haul
I'm a 37-year-old woman who has struggled with mild ME/CFS since I was a teenager. I've also had Long Covid for the last three years, which exacerbated things significantly and brought on new symptoms. I found Mike at Food For Your Jeans through Brandon Gilles on Twitter. I was skeptical at first, but willing to experiment. My first appointment with Mike was on April 13th, 2023; at that time I was averaging 2,000 steps per day, and suffering from debilitating dysautonomia, TBI-like brain fog, and impaired digestion. I sent Mike my genetic data from Ancestry and 23andme, some old blood work, and my health history. He put me on a highly personalized diet/supplement regimen and also ordered a stool test. Within the first month, I was walking 12,000 steps a day, and started to see measurable improvements in energy, autonomic function, brain fog, and digestion. Then the stool test results came in, showing gut dysbiosis, SIBO, and problems with vitamin absorption. During my second appointment on May 16th, Mike made additions to my protocol, including a "gut bomb" sequence intended to root out some of the bacterial overgrowth. It's now been almost three months since my first appointment and my overall baseline has remained at a much higher level. I've also seen encouraging changes in my sleep, which was extremely disrupted (night terrors, waking every hour, etc). Mike hypothesized that there might be blood sugar/hypoxia issues there, and suggested a combination of dietary tweaks and nighttime herbal interventions, which helped prevent hypoxia. Sure enough, I started to see improvement within a week: deeper sleep, less screaming. :) There's nuance and trial-and-error involved in Mike's approach, and there have been some inevitable setbacks--I had a bad reaction early on to several mineral supplements, and it looks like there are problems with Candida and possibly other pathogens in the gut--but the general trend has been undeniably positive and steady. I've appreciated Mike's willingness to answer questions, try new approaches when something isn't working, and explain the mechanisms behind his suggestions in detail. I’ve never experienced such a thoughtful, actionable approach to chronic illness recovery.
Some of her updates along the way.....
Update 1:
Hi! Just letting you know that I've isolated my not-great reactions to CDP Choline (immediately spikes my BP!), selenium, and iodine...but I'm having some AMAZING results with everything else. Excited to follow up at length w/ you once I get the Thorne Gut Heath results.
Update 2:
Hi again! A few updates:
1. DEFINITELY on to something with the blood sugar/sleep connection...I haven't even started SAMe yet, but I'm noticing that a small, balanced snack before bed tends to help with the waking-up-sweating-and-screaming at 3 am. :) Sleep is still disrupted, but noticeably better.
2. I just got some blood work back from a few weeks ago--everything looks good except for cholesterol and A1C, which are both a bit elevated despite all the interventions/diet/etc. I have a feeling I'm on the right track and things will continue to improve, but maybe we can discuss at our next session..I'll probably schedule something w/ you next month when I've gone through the complete microbiome-bombing protocol!
Update 3:
Hi again! I'm feeling REALLY positive, noticeable effects from the gut-bombing, and will probably re-test biome next month before scheduling w you! Haven't done oxygen concentrator yet but am sleeping much better with a good HEPA filter in the room for starters...
Update 4:
ah great, will add to the list!
was just about to write you and say i finally got gotu kola + bacopa--GAME CHANGERS as you predicted. my brain doesn't feel like it's on fire!! and waiting for genistein to arrive tomorrow...
Update 5 (adding genistein has been huge, as you predicted!)
Letting you know that for the past four days I've had steady HR in the 60s, and steady BP readings for the first time in almost two years. (HR has generally been from 80-120 since 2021!) Yesterday I was even able to exercise very moderately for 20 minutes--I could "get my heart rate up" bc it wasn't already up, I didn't feel starved for oxygen, and I was even able to read and write a bit afterwards without feeling concussed. I might have overdone it (today I'm back to mostly-sitting/lying quietly) but these changes are unlike anything I've experienced since Covid hit. Oh also--I tried the CDP Choline again out of curiosity and felt great, no reaction! Maybe enough has stabilized in the last three months for me to add that back in.