Gut Health: SIBO, Candida, Mold and the Importance of Mental Strength.

As I am celebrating my birthday and reflecting on the past year, I thought what a great time to share my healing journey. 

Did you know that IBS affects between 25 and 45 million people in the United States. About 2 in 3 IBS sufferers are female.

I was diagnosed with IBS when I was 17. I was getting colonoscopies and endoscopies at this young age with doctors ultimately telling me, “you have slow tubes.” 

They asked if my mom went to the bathroom regularly (at least once a day) and when I said no, they slapped an IBS label on me and that was it. 

I could have walked out of the office but I always demanded help and to not be in pain. 

For a few years after this I tried every pill under the sun. 

The first holistic doctor I ever saw at the age of 22, opened my eyes up to the importance of herbs and supplements. 

During my body building years, my eating was incredibly consistent (and a lot of the same foods). The severity of my issues and my pain increasingly subsided. 

As I stepped off stage from a national show in Bermuda, that night my partner and I got our greatest gift of all…. our soon to be baby girl. 

My body was about to go from the leanest it ever was straight into preparing to have a baby (cue STRESS)

The body is truly incredible and I went from the tiny, lean person I was to carrying our baby girl. 

The next year there was a theme of… STRESS..

I worked in education (in administration) and for the first time ever we moved education to the virtual platforms during covid, my partner lost his job, my first pregnancy, moving in with my parents then ultimately moving from NY to FL 6 weeks postpartum.

Then I decided to move my side business and practice online and become a CEO. 

Being a mom, a new business owner and in a new place without the comfort of friends and family was a trip and a half. 

Fast forward a few months, I couldn’t eat anything without intense bloating and pain worse than I ever experienced. I couldn’t go up a flight of stairs without my body hurting. (I used to do 45 mins on the stair master 2x a day and worked out my entire pregnancy) I was a level of tired that was around how I felt when I had mono in high school. Things were really wrong and I couldn’t just “keep pushing through.” 

I saw a holistic doctor as well as a gastroint. Both said I had something called, Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). One practitioner wanted to give me herbal medication (for 1k) and the other was 21 days of antibiotics for 1k. The holistic doctor said I was incredibly inflamed all over and my adrenals were shot. 

At this time, I was pretty knowledgeable in reading blood tests but it was time to understand more. In between taking care of my very little one and my exhaustion, I learned even more about how to read blood work. 

After a lot of time and money (I ended up doing the antibiotics as well) and lots of crazy diets..  I knew there had to be a reason why I got the SIBO and stress was a lot of it but not the whole story. Months later I found out that I also had an overgrowth of candida (yeast), parasites and high levels of mold toxicity. More dieting for all of this. 

As I joined a few Facebook groups for support, I would read women saying they needed to nap multiple times a day, or staying in bed not knowing when they will feel like themselves again. 

Besides just getting back to this “new” version of mom me, I anchored into my why’s in life. I reminded myself DAILY (multiple times) of what I am grateful for- my family, my baby, building a business supporting women to be the greatest versions of themselves. 

On the days, I felt I wasn’t sure and was scared when I would fully be healed, I reminded myself, “it’s one day at a time and you will get there.” I did not feel I was in a financial place to be spending the money I was on my healing but there was absolutely no way I was going to stay where I was. 

When you want something enough, you will figure it out. My motto always is, “where there is a will, there is a way!” I learned about the intense ties and correlations between healing childhood trauma.

As a practicing therapist, this made sense and I knew there was more I could uncover and navigate through.I went into therapy AND got certified in trauma work through NLP and Time Line Therapy. 

Every night, I would lay my head on the pillow and the thought would come in.. “How are you going to feel in the morning/ how much pain and discomfort will be there?” And as soon as the thought came in, I would practice what I preach and coach- 

Acknowledge and validate there’s a reason the thought came in 

Support yet challenge 

Evaluate new thought 

It’s now been 6 months and there’s really great days and some days where it’s not so great. 

As I am beginning to share this story, I encourage every single person to never give up in advocating for yourself and your health. The mental aspect of healing your body is just as, if not more important than the food and medication.On a daily basis, I listen to my self-dialogue, I am aware of my thoughts, I challenge them and speak to myself like I would speak to a loved one. 

Never ever settle, your future self will thank you.