Phil's Health Struggles and Recovery from POTS
This blog post is a long time coming.
As most of you know, 2019 was a crazy year for Phil and I as he battled through some undiagnosed health issues. At one point, it got so bad that Phil wasn’t able to go to work anymore, let alone exercise or be part of any social activities. I distinctly remember one day in August where we tried to go for a short walk, and we had to turn around after 15 minutes because Phil was on the verge of fainting. It was the fist time that happened and we both went to sleep that night dumbfounded by the fact that we couldn’t even do the smallest of things anymore. Phil was left grappling with his new reality - a reality in which he went from healthy to unwell practically overnight and had no clue why. It affected e-v-e-r-y aspect of our lives, and it was one of the hardest things he’s every had to go through.
The reason why I asked Phil to share the details of his journey is because most of us take our health for granted and that’s not OK. Most of us go through our days and just expect our bodies to function, to deliver and to do what we want them to do. And the crazy thing is that most people go through their life treating their body like absolute crap and they still expect their body to perform. This whole journey has been the greatest reminder for the both of us that if you don’t have health, nothing else matters. In sharing his journey, we hope that others struggling with any sort of health issues find some sort of comfort and are possibly able to short-circuit some of the searching process for a diagnosis.
Before I let Phil share this story from his perspective, let me just say: I have so much respect and admiration for how he carried himself throughout this whole process. He is the most patient, resilient, positive and strong person that I know, and my respect and love for him only grew seeing his unwavering optimism throughout the last year. I’m a full believer in that all things happen for a reason, and this experience has certainly made us grow as individuals and as a joint force.
But without further ado…
How did it all start?
In March last year we moved to Melbourne after having lived in Sydney for 3 years. Everything began pretty smoothly for us but in May I was suddenly hit by some very strange health issues, completely out of nowhere. I felt lightheaded, dizzy, had a speeding heart race at times, dealt with acid reflux and heart burn and felt as if I could faint at any moment. At the beginning I didn’t think too much of it and thought it would go away, but it gradually worsened over time. Soon, I was no longer able to exercise, I didn’t have the energy to be around people much and small everyday tasks became monumental missions. At one point, I had to completely stop working and I would practically spend my days lying in bed or heading from one doctor’s appointment to the next.
Before this, I’ve never had a serious health issue in my life. Yet suddenly here I was, unable to do the smallest of tasks and live a normal life. My life had come to a screeching hault.
So, the search for answers began…
The search for answers – the medical approach
As everyone would, I started with doing the typical check-up’s that included seeing a GP and getting comprehensive blood tests done. Everything seemed to be in the normal ranges. I then moved on to a ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat specialist), to see if these issues were caused by a sinus problem. Everything checked out. I then saw a Neurologist and did a Brain MRI and back MRI. All clear. The last step was to make sure my heart was fine and so I also did a stress EKG. All clear. Meanwhile my symptoms were getting worse and worse and no one had any answers for me. I was waking up every morning not knowing how my body would feel that day, whether it would be on my side or rebelling against me.
What is crazy is that through this entire search, I was prescribed 6 different types of prescription drugs including antibiotics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, pain killers, beta-blockers, migraine medication and even anti-depressants, the latter which I never took. Sometimes these doctors would spend 10 minutes with me, and without the blink of an eye prescribe their medications to me. Verdict: no improvement with any of them. In retrospect, I probably did even more harm taking these prescription drugs, but more on that in a bit. At this point I began to feel deflated and discouraged, not just because the medication wasn’t working, but also because it felt like the medical system was playing some weird game of ping pong with me, shoving me from one doctor to the other without ever receiving any real answers.
The medical diagnosis – POTS
Not having a diagnosis and tapping around in the dark sucked. All I wanted was for someone to tell me what’s wrong with me. And when that diagnosis finally came, I was relieved and motivated, albeit only at first. My diagnosis came in the form of a Tilt Test, which tests changes in heart rate and blood pressure from a sitting to a standing position.
I tested positive, which meant I was diagnosed with something called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, an autoimmune dysfunction involving the autonomic and sympathetic nervous system, that affects circulation (blood flow). The primary symptom of an orthostatic intolerance is lightheadedness, fainting, and an uncomfortable, rapid increase in heartbeat, and symptoms can be offset at any point, but particularly when standing up from a reclining position. According to my doctors, it is chronic and can last for years or be a lifelong condition. Also, there is no real treatment except for increasing salt in your diet, changing your lifestyle (I was pretty much already doing all the right things) and trying prescription drugs that regulate blood pressure.
How the heck did I go from being 100% healthy and never having health issues to having something like this?! As desperately as I had wanted a diagnosis, this result hit me hard. Was I going to feel like this forever? Was there really nothing else I could do?!
After it all sunk in and I did initial research, I found a clinic that was specialized in POTS treatment. Together we created a treatment plan and I began to increase my salt intake, find gentle forms of movement designed to increase my circulation and make small little lifestyle changes. However, I was skeptical of the diagnosis and felt like we hadn’t yet gotten to the root cause of my symptoms, and so my time with the clinic was short-lived as I kept digging for more answers.
The search for answers – natural medicine
I felt like the medical system had failed me. Yes, I had gotten a diagnosis but I wasn’t getting any better and had unanswered questions that no-one seemed to be able to explain. I started understanding how Western Medicine seems to be ill-fit for more chronic issues like mine, at least if I wanted to truly understand the root cause of it. It was time to shift to a more natural approach.
I grew up in a family that placed a big emphasis on natural medicine and I had tried Chinese medicine, acupuncture, cupping etc as a kid, so I was no stranger to alternative options. Obviously Stef and I live a pretty health-conscious life already, and I also learnt a lot about alternative healing modalities through her studying at IIN, so I was ready to go down this route.
Dr. Rajeev explained to me that he has helped countless patients and has witnessed incredible recoveries, and that Ayurveda has been around for more than 6000 years, well known for curing debilitating diseases in record time. Given the research I had done, I understood the approach he was suggesting - a 20 day protocol to detoxify my body to allow for better blood flow, all in order to return it back to a healthy state. You can find the full program that I did here.
Throughout the course of the treatment, I had many high’s and low’s. Some days were straight up sh*%t because my body was reacting so strongly to the detoxification process, but Rajeev assured me that this was all part of the process. And alas, by the end of it, I had made huge progress. I arrived in Chiang Mai with strong dizzy spells and constant light-headedness, big drops of blood pressure and constant heart racing, all the while on beta blockers. After the program, I still felt these symptoms but to a fraction of what they used to be, plus I got off the beta blockers. By the time I returned to Melbourne, I was able to slowly ease back into work and get some sense of normalcy into my life.
I definitely wasn’t back to normal yet and knew there was more work to do, but I am so grateful to Dr. Rajeev and the entire team there. I think that the Ayurvedic treatment protocol was like pressing a reset button for my body, and that it provided me the foundation from which to get my health back to normal.
What next?
I had hoped that the remainder of my symptoms would slowly dissipate as time went on and the effects from the Ayurvedic treatment would fully come into effect. But this wasn’t quite the case. Although I was doing so much better than before, I still didn’t have my normal life back: I still felt too weak to exercise, felt like anything and everything I ate upset my stomach and would get sporadic dizziness spells out of nowhere. Definitely not a new normal that I was willing to accept!
This led me to work with a Naturopath as well as a Chinese Medicine doctor. My research pointed me towards trying tinctures that would increase blood pressure and blood flow in the body with some studies showing that liquorice could help with POTS symptoms. I gave it a try but it seemed to make my symptoms worse. I also went to see a Chinese medicine doctor who mentioned that my tongue still showed signs of an unhealthy gut so I took some herbal supplements for the gut.
Both were very interesting and led me to try additional therapies including reflexology and cranial sacral therapy. Unfortunately, none of these gave me the relief I was looking for to get back to full health. The search continued.
The last piece of the puzzle - Gut & Food Sensitivity Test
The first one was the Microba gut microbiome test, which was once again eye opening. This test provides detailed insights the microorganisms inhabiting your gut and how they function to impact your health. It is a powerful, evidence-based tool that looks at things like the diversity level of your microbiome, information about the levels of selected bacterial species and its potential to produce key metabolites and vitamins. I then did a consult through Kultured Wellness, who offer in-depth analysis of Microba tests.
The key takeaway was that I essentially have leaky gut. In short, leaky gut is a digestive condition in which bacteria and toxins are able to "leak" through the intestinal wall due to damage that has been done to the lining. When the gut is "leaky" and bacteria and toxins enter the bloodstream, it can cause widespread inflammation and possibly trigger a reaction from the immune system, leading to all sorts of long-term health issues.
“Autoimmune diseases have less to do with genetics and far more to do with gut dysbiosis, which has been connected to over 90% of all cases of autoimmune disorders” - Stephen Cabral
What I didn’t understand is a) how the heck did I get leaky gut in the first place, considering I am someone who is so health-conscious? and b) how was it possible that my gut still wasn’t healthier given all the work I had done on it? But here I had it on paper, black on white. I had gut dysbiosis, aka an imbalance of good vs. bad bacteria, and I had a liver that was struggling to remove toxins. As a result of this, I also wasn’t absorbing nutrients properly.
Following this, the team from Kultured Wellness put me on a supplement protocol, including P2 Liver Detox and digestive enzymes, coupled with a daily bone broth regimen.
To understand how I was causing damage to my intestinal lining, I next decided to do a Food Intolerance Test. Equally very very interesting results came about. Apparently, foods that I have eaten my entire life were causing inflammation in the gut including dairy, wheat, potatoes, rice, corn, egg yolk, yeast, a few nuts and some other foods. Before you say it, yep I know that’s some pretty big staple ingredients right there! But I wasn’t phased by this one bit - all I wanted was to get my body back to full health. I immediately changed what I was eating and found substitutes for some of the things that I was most upset about, like rice. The biggest challenge was to also reduce coffee because I noticed that it didn’t sit well with my digestion.
Verdict? I started noticing changes instantly. Ever since those two tests, two or three symptom flare ups aside, I have been back to pretty much 100% health. I couldn’t believe it! After all these tests and diagnoses and medical bills and treatment plans, the missing link had been right in front of me on my daily plate.
“One of the most overlooked causes of depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic attacks, and other mental health issues, is hidden food sensitivities” - Stephen Cabral
I fully believe that the changes in diet and supplements, coupled with the foundational work of the Ayurvedic treatment, was what worked for me. None of the traditional Western methods had helped, and surely not the antibiotics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, pain killers, beta-blockers and migraine medication. Those may have temporarily helped, but in the long run only served to cover up the underlying root causes.
Key takeaway
One of the biggest takeaways for me was the importance of the gut. We really do underestimate how important it is to nourish our gut through healthy foods, and it’s so easy to overlook this until we actually get sick. If you are struggling with any type of health issues, I bet it’s worth it to have a closer look at your gut microbiome and it will hold at least some of the answers you are looking for. Personally, changing my diet following the gut test was a game changer, which highlighted the importance of bio-individuality to me. I thought I was already eating pretty healthy, but I had failed to understand just how bio-individual our health is and how sometimes one man’s medicine can be another man’s poison.
Another key takeaway is the importance of detoxifying the body. The liver plays such an important role to keep us healthy by removing all the toxins in our bodies, and even if we think we are healthy, many of us would be surprised at how many toxins have built up in our bodies. In today’s world we are surrounded by so many environmental toxins that undoubtedly have an effect on our health in the long run, even if we don’t notice it at first. I think this is where Ayurveda really helped me - enabling my body to detoxify fully and ultimately set the foundation for rebuilding my gut health.
On a more personal note, this year taught me resilience, patience and gratitude. It takes time for your body to heal and even though you want things to go back to normal asap, sometimes you have to sit in the discomfort of the unknown and accept it. I am so grateful for all the help and support I got from my family and Stef that were there for me every step along the way, I couldn’t have done it without them. The year really tested Stef’s and my relationship, and I’m grateful how we both grew from it and are stronger than ever as a result. It really was a reality check that made us all realise how health is the ultimate wealth and the we shouldn’t take it for granted. I sure as heck am never going to take my health for granted again.