Pg. 6 2025-26 Health & Wellness Magazine Lincoln Daily News was met with silence. I went to my background in health. This was before probiotics were mainstream and leaky gut and gut permeability were well-known. The internet was just getting going, so finding information and physicians became a priority. Our son was born in July of 2001 and by October he had also developed gut issues. We were getting nowhere with the available doctors. We found a naturopathic doctor in New Hampshire. I found the book “Patient Heal Thyself” by Jordan Rubin and a book called “Nourishing Traditions,” which was about how to prepare food to be more absorbable by the body. It took about a year to find these things. I felt like a detective looking for clues. There was not a lot of research on this topic yet. We found help through chiropractors who knew something about nutrition. Our son had to wait until 2 years old to be tested for allergies, and he had a lot of food intolerances and allergies… gluten, dairy, eggs. We went on a revised vaccine schedule and did a lot of gut work with him. He did not eat a school lunch until high school. He’s now 23 and doing great. He listens to his body. My husband Will has had a much longer journey. We had a big breakthrough in 2017 with an M.D. who practices functional medicine, Dr. Thomas Rhode. He found heavy metals and a heavy viral load were big drivers of the situation with Will’s body. We found Dr. Rhode because our middle daughter was home sick with a fever for a week and then could not wake up in the morning. She was a four sport athlete and a straight-A student. Again, doctors diagnosed depression. She was not depressed; she could not wake up. We went to neurologists, and other specialists, and they said nothing was wrong with her. We found Dr. Rhode in March of 2016. Our daughter had missed 365 days of school. Dr. Rhode found she had a high viral load and high heavy metals, a similar profile to Will. We were again making sure sleep and diet were good, but it was not enough to get her over the hump. Dr. Rhode started ultraviolet light treatment to kill pathogens of all kinds in the blood, a treatment that was available before antibiotics were around. After 10 treatments to bring down the viral load, (some viruses we don’t have tests for or need the test needs to be administered at the right time), she was able to go back to school and finish her senior year. She was able to make up six semester classes online. and was able to do that and run track her senior year. She has been fine since then. Ultraviolet light treatment is good for Lyme disease and Epstein-Barr, as well. It allows your body to know what to look for and kill those pathogens. The intensity of the load goes down. It is good for bacteria, fungus, and viruses. Will, however, also needed metal detoxification. We needed a bigger tool box to help those three family members to heal. These experiences were a big lesson in advocating for yourself and trusting that you know your body. My husband and daughter were not depressed emotionally, the body was depressed and it needed time and solutions. I liked our traditional doctors, but they did not have enough time and or enough tools. I did not know what my family needed, but I knew they needed something else. My interest in the health of the GI tract began when my mother got sick in 2003 and had surgery for a blood clot in the intestines. Then she had a second surgery for another one. I made nourishing food like homemade chicken broth and brought it to the hospital. Nutrition that she could absorb and that would Continued --
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzExODA=