Case study: “I feel so much more alive”

Sophie is a 52 year old lady I first saw 6 weeks ago. She had a long list of health problems. In fact she handed me a one page document listing all of her health problems and symptoms because she knew there would not be sufficient room on the questionnaire to list all her concerns.

Sophie has an under active thyroid gland and she has been on medication for the last 15 years. Her blood test results are normal, indicating that her dose of thyroxine is correct. Unfortunately Sophie felt far from fine. At the top of her list of concerns was the fact that she had gained 85 pounds since her thyroid problem began, and she had not been able to lose it.

Sophie also experienced a great deal of pain throughout her body; she had fibromyalgia and also joint pain, particularly in her fingers and ankles. Sophie suffered with a great deal of fatigue. She also had an enormous amount of ongoing stress in her life; she was a full time carer of her two adult autistic children, and her father was dying of pancreatic cancer. Blood tests showed that Sophie was deficient in iron and vitamin D, which would partly explain her fatigue.

Sophie had terrible digestion. She regularly experienced diarrhoea for no known reason, and she took a drug to block the production of stomach acid, in order to prevent reflux. I asked Sophie to make a lot of changes to her diet, but as you will see, the enormous benefits she experienced made it well worthwhile.

Sophie often skipped meals, because she was too busy and tired to prepare something for herself. Therefore, rather than eating proper meals, she would often make a peanut butter sandwich for herself and eat it while doing the housework or while driving. Dinner was usually a healthy meal, comprising of fish or poultry with vegetables, but it wasn’t unusual for Sophie to just eat cheese on toast on the sofa.

My recommendations

• Firstly I asked Sophie to follow the lower carbohydrate, higher protein eating plan in my book Fatty Liver You Can Reverse It. This eating plan not only helps to reverse fatty liver; it’s a very effective weight loss plan. The fact that it is a grain free diet means it helps most cases of diarrhoea and reflux.
• Sophie was very low in vitamin D so I asked her to take one 5000 IU capsule per day with breakfast. She was already taking an iron supplement, which her local doctor prescribed.
• I also gave Sophie Thyroid Health capsules and asked her to take 2 each day with lunch. Sophie’s thyroid gland is underactive because she has Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. This is an autoimmune condition. This means we need to rebalance Sophie’s immune system and reduce the inflammation in her body. The selenium and vitamin D in Thyroid Health capsules would help to achieve that. The iodine in these capsules would improve her sluggish metabolism.
• I asked Sophie to take a teaspoon of magnesium powder in the evening to improve the quality of her sleep, and also to help her feel less stressed and anxious during the day.
• I asked Sophie to make the diet changes and take the supplements and asked her to come back in 6 weeks.  It was clear to see that Sophie had lost a lot of weight when she returned. Sophie didn’t want to weigh herself but she did say her favourite pants no longer fit, so she was able to wear a smaller size that had been sitting in her wardrobe for years.

I asked Sophie how she feels and she replied “I feel good. I feel so much more alive. It kind of felt like I was living my life half asleep”. Sophie mentioned that her mind feels sharper and she is a lot less moody and irritable. Unfortunately her father died a few weeks ago and she remarked “as sad as I feel about that, physically I actually haven’t felt this good for as long as I can remember”.

Sophie noticed a significant reduction in joint and muscle pain. She said that her day to day life felt so much easier now that her body was healthier. Sophie still has a long way to go and I plan to see her in another 6 weeks.

The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.