There Isn’t Just One Root Cause of Your Illness

I’ve said the following to just about every single one of our private 1-on-1 clients:

“Getting at the root cause of chronic illness is like peeling back the layers of an onion.”

The honest truth is: We’re all after the root cause of why we got sick, the smoking gun that will show us the answers.

But I believe most of us got here because multiple things combined to make us sick… and it can be a long, windey road to uncovering these multiple issues that caused the sickness.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned working with our 1-on-1 private clients, it’s that there’s rarely a definitive “smoking gun”…

There’s Never “Just One” Root Cause

For example, over the last 7 years I’ve peeled back the layers of my onion, getting deeper and deeper into uncovering what started it all (and it wasn’t just gluten). There were parasites, bacterial infections, adrenal fatigue, brain chemistry issues,  and many more layers I had to peel back.

But diet was the first step.

Like our friend Nia (pictured above), a private 1-on-1 coaching client we worked with to peel back the layers. Initially, her changes began with diet changes… but expanded beyond that down the road.

In her own words:

I’d been struggling with IBS for over a decade. It first hit me when I was unhappy in a stressful job. Then it came back even worse a few years later when my mother got sick. Both times were stressful and yoga always resolved it. Then, about 3 years ago, again during another stressful time in my life, it resurfaced. Only this time yoga couldn’t cure it. I went to a gastroenterologist for another colonoscopy and was diagnosed with colitis and prescribed medicine that had scary side effects. 

I sought alternative treatments and paid for an expensive naturopath, but she didn’t have a clue and I was getting worse and losing weight by the minute with her elimination diet. That naturopath did do something right. Although she didn’t know a lot about the SCD diet, she did tell me to buy the SCD cookbook–but never told me about the stages in the diet or about the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle! She even said don’t eat anything from the book until we’re done eliminating certain foods! She was grasping at straws and I was getting worse. I was, however, lucky enough to investigate more about the SCD diet on the internet. I came across Steve and Jordan’s blog, sent them a desperate email not knowing if they would even write me back or if they were for real –after all, there are many people making claims on the internet. Within 2 days, I heard back from Jordan and he told me Steve would be in touch with me, which he did the very next day. He asked what I had been eating and suggested I keep a food diary and email him that information. I was sick, scared and skinny, but mostly scared that if it didn’t work I would have to resort to taking the medicine the doctor prescribed. I was so weak and dehydrated I couldn’t work. When Steve emailed me back saying they thought they could help me– I believed them. And finding an alternative to harmful medicine was my motivation. 

Steven and I immediately got started on the monthly coaching– and he set up a diet for me to follow. I also read other people’s stories on the SCD Lifestyle blog and used the vitamins and probiotics they recommended. (The ones my gastro doctor told me to get were making me sicker.) 

By the end of the first week, I began to feel better. I was still sick but having some improvement. The pain was almost gone so that was extremely encouraging! I learned how to follow the diet– the introductory diet in BTVC was great but I didn’t know how to proceed and I needed guidance on what to eat next and when. They gave me staging charts, I read their book and later on I began listening to podcasts. Hearing other people going through a similar experience really helped me feel like I wasn’t alone. It was not only informative, it was actually comforting.

By the 2nd week, my health was improving rapidly, and by week 3 we began working on gaining my weight back and strength building, like what to do at the gym, what to avoid, and Steve advised me to continue with my yoga and meditation. 

I can proudly say today I’m at my optimum health– my mind is alert, my body is in shape and most of all I feel healthy! I recommend the SCD Lifestyle blog to anyone who tells me they have digestive issues.

I’ll never be able to really thank Steve and Jordan for not only helping me get better, but for encouraging me and teaching me how to live a healthy life and for that I will always be grateful. 

I wish them all the best, 

Nia 

NY, NY

With each layer we peel back, we can discover something new, something new hidden beneath all the other problems we couldn’t see before.

And the secret to discovering each root cause of your illness is a 4-step process

If you’ve attended any of our recent gut-brain-hormone axis presentations, you’ll know this 4-step process. We call it the “4-step process for unlocking stomach problems.”

But it’s more than just that.

Honestly, it’s the 4 steps required to peel back each layer of your chronic illness.

Here’s the 4-step process to peel back the layers of your chronic illness:

1. Get reliable Functional Medicine testing done on the 3 main body systems
2. Work with a skilled practitioner who knows how to interpret your results
3. Create a protocol to fix each of the problems that were found on the tests
4. After the protocols are finished, retest to make sure you fully restored the body system

It seems simple… but if you follow those four steps you’ll peel back a layer… one by one.

These four steps are exactly the same process I followed to find each root cause of my illness and how I peeled back each layer of my onion (and how I continue to get healthier and healthier today).

Not only that, but these four steps are how we continued to peel back the layers of chronic illness with our hundreds of 1-on-1 clients.

We helped them get the RIGHT tests, created a 6 to 12-month plan based on the results, worked that plan, and retested to see where things are at.

For example, you might discover Stage 3 adrenal fatigue and work on correcting that for 6-12 months… making huge improvements to your energy and inflammation. Next, you might find you have SIBO and need to follow a 60-day herbal protocol to get rid of that. Then, treat a parasite… and so on and so on.

But each layer makes you feel better and that’s what’s important. With each root cause, you’re getting rid of symptoms left and right.

The bottom line: You could throw money randomly at the wall and order a battery of tests costing $3,000-$8,000 and try to find “the smoking gun,” like some of our 1-on-1 private clients told us about. Alternatively, you can work with skilled practitioners who know how to use this 4-step plan, or even battled back from their own sickness using it, and peel back each layer much faster.

That’s why, as Steve and I continued to explore the deeper root causes of our illness, we trained with the best Functional Medicine Practitioners in the world…

So we could help you work this 4-step plan… and help you discover the root causes of your illness.

But if you take anything away from this post… I want you to know that there isn’t just one “smoking gun” root cause of your illness.

There are many.

And discovering each one and treating it will get you one step closer to symptom-free.

You can book your 1-hour “root cause” case review here:

https://stg.healthygut.com/consulting/

We look forward to hearing about your root-cause discoveries that have been hiding for so long and the next steps on your journey to better health.

In good health,

– Jordan