Case Study: Reversing Adrenal Exhaustion
When a 33-year-old lawyer named “Jill” came to see me for a second opinion about a recent diagnosis of Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Besides his new autoimmune diagnosis, “Jill” had chronic swelling and pain in her legs, heavy menses, weekly headaches, hemorrhoids, and acne for over ten years.
“Jill” often was in a frequent state of anxiety and had poor energy linked to chronic anemia.
After determining “Jill” had long-standing severe leaky gut with a high level of systemic inflammation and poor regulation of her nervous system, we began a gut healing protocol. Through recommending dietary changes and supplements customized to “Jill”, her gut issues resolved within one month and her energy level began to increase. “Jill” coincidentally noticed her facial skin was less oily.
Yet, her progress was incomplete.
“Jill” had become disconnected by what her acute and chronic stressors were. This led to frequent bouts of leg swelling, anxiety spikes, and the inability for her digestive system to truly heal. We soon learned “Jill’s” biggest fear stemmed from her father suddenly dying of cancer at the young age of 55.
“Jill’s” stress was essentially overriding her body’s ability to heal. It was preventing repair of long-standing damage to her leaky gut.
In order for “Jill” to see how stress was wreaking havoc on her body, she decided to get a Thermography scan done at Advanced Health.
The thermogram results showed:
Tense muscles and excess inflammation throughout the body
Constricted blood flow causing poor circulation in extremities (which presented as cold hands/feet and joint pain in knees/ankles)
Poor drainage of toxins around the breasts and chest with increased risk of breast cancer cell growth.
Jaw clenching and damage.
Poorly functioning digestive tract with chronic leaky gut and regurgitation of poorly digested food into the respiratory tract causing chronic sinusitis and allergy symptoms.
What can you do for a patient whose all-day excess cortisol production leads to excessive wear-and-tear of the body?
It takes a multi-faceted approach.
The thermogram report helped “Jill” realize her damaged nervous system had been sending constant stress signals throughout her body. It had eventually led to organs not functioning properly and gradually becoming damaged. “Jill’s” severe adrenal fatigue was killing her.
At this point, we had “Jill” see a manual osteopath and a yoga therapist for additional assistance. “Jill’s” experienced a tremendous decrease in her pain. Since we were still hitting a wall, “Jill” began BEMER microcirculation therapy every day at home for one month. It dramatically helped decrease “Jill’s” leg swelling and stress. She finally began to feel more energy and able to begin dealing with getting rid of the deeply rooted emotional stressors which had been weighing “Jill” down for many years.
For “Jill,” many critical shifts in diet, medication, and ways of living were necessary to first understand the root cause of her adrenal exhaustion. By stopping the chronic harm “Jill” was subconsciously causing and instead invest in better supporting cellular health and the parasympathic nervous system, “Jill” finally began to feel consistently better. She began to move away from deeply rooted fears and instead developed the strength to finally leave her dissatisfied job, move to her dream home, and start trying to have a family with her supportive husband.
AUTHOR
Dr. Payal Bhandari M.D. is one of U.S.'s top leading integrative functional medical physicians and the founder of SF Advanced Health. She combines the best in Eastern and Western Medicine to understand the root causes of diseases and provide patients with personalized treatment plans that quickly deliver effective results. Dr. Bhandari specializes in cell function to understand how the whole body works. Dr. Bhandari received her Bachelor of Arts degree in biology in 1997 and Doctor of Medicine degree in 2001 from West Virginia University. She the completed her Family Medicine residency in 2004 from the University of Massachusetts and joined a family medicine practice in 2005 which was eventually nationally recognized as San Francisco’s 1st patient-centered medical home. To learn more, go to www.sfadvancedhealth.com.