The problem

Jane had significant physical, emotional, and relationship challenges that were devastating the quality of this her life at home and at work. Physically, she had fatigue, severe hot flashes, insomnia, total body pain, headaches, increased body fat, dry skin, brittle nails, and decreased cardiovascular endurance. Emotionally, she was depressed. There were serious relationship issues at home and at work.

The solution

I began by asking her to

• Get some lab work: complete blood count, metabolic profile, thyroid blood test, and vitamin D level.
• Take the Enneagram assessment, which would supply valuable clues about what early experiences had given her the social conditioning to compulsively agree to do what others asked her to do for them even when it was inappropriate, and what she could do to free herself from that conditioning.
• Do a basal temperature test, which is a more reliable indicator of thyroid status than the blood tests.

Her lab work revealed some important findings:

• Vitamin D was very low: 15 ng. Her thyroid blood test (TSH) was in the reference range, indicating to me that it would be safe for her to take thyroid hormone. Her basal body temperature was well below normal, suggesting that hypothyroidism was part of her problem.

I prescribed:

• a high potency multivitamin-mineral supplement
• optimum doses of vitamin C, D, a high-quality concentrated fish oil, and bioidentical progesterone and estrogen transdermal creams.
• natural thyroid hormone (NatureThroid)

As her physical symptoms began to improve, I asked her to begin to make some observations about her interactions with her husband and her coworkers and to try some behavioral changes in those interactions.

Results

Her physical symptoms begin to improve almost immediately. At the first follow up visit her total body pain was 80% improved and all of her other physical 50% improved. By the eighth follow-up visit she had cleared all of her physical symptoms. The chronic anger and conflict with her husband had gradually transmuted into warmth and affection and she was enjoying a relationship of cooperation and mutual respect with her coworkers. Her parting comment at the end of her final visit was, with a smile, “Life is good!”

For a more detailed discussion of this remarkable case, click here.