A woman in her late-60s presented with fatigue. She was slightly underweight and was active with her grandchildren in her retirement years. Her blood pressure was normal and no abdominal pain, but she felt bloated after eating all the time. The only imbalance that could be determined was that she had been having diarrhea for 4-5 years. It started right before she retired and it persisted. She would feel tired after going to the bathroom and was going often. There were no red flags, but it was clear that the diarrhea was contributing to her fatigue. I started her on weekly acupuncture therapy, herbal medicine, and probiotics. We discussed what her diet consisted of and found she was avoiding eating much because of diarrhea. She had lost 15 pounds over the last 4 years. I gave her recipes for congees and had her avoid eating certain foods for a short time.

Update:

After 2 weeks of treatment, she started to have a ravenous appetite. After 3 weeks of treatment, she no longer had any diarrhea and the bloating after she ate had stopped. We discontinued the herbal medicine and continued weekly acupuncture for a total of 7 weeks. She was happy to finally have her strength back and ability to eat foods and not feel terrible afterward. She began to test the waters by trying to expand her food variety, however, she found out that she reacted poorly after eating 2 different kinds of food. She will be avoiding those foods in the future and realizes that she could never tell what her body didn’t respond to well before because she always felt awful after eating.

Disclaimer

Every success story on this website is from a patient of Dr. Erin West. All patient testimonials were unsolicited. No one was paid for a testimonial or endorsement. Before and after photos were not retouched or altered. Results were self-reported by the customer and therefore cannot be confirmed.  Results may not be typical.