When I received my POTS diagnosis last December, I really wanted to focus on healing naturally and controlling what I could before getting on any type of medication. A lot of POTS patients don’t have an option to stay off medication but I wanted to try that before anything else. Along with following the Levine Protocol, I wanted to see if I could get to a root cause on some of the symptoms and issues I was experiencing.
A lot of people with POTS have underlying causes and we needed to get to the root of the problem. And shockingly, a lot of it has to do with gut health. In an article on the National Library of Medicine, they say “POTS patients also experience a wide array of non cardiovascular complaints, particularly gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms such as chronic nausea, vomiting, bloating, diarrhea or severe constipation.”
But in addition to these symptoms, I was also having headaches, brain fog, extreme exhaustion, heart palpitations, dizziness, and lightheadedness.
I had met Gina Jones through a mutual friend and started following her on Instagram and seen her posts about her services and how she’s helped so many people. Could she help me? Could she heal my gut? Could she help me alleviate some of the symptoms I had been feeling? I reached out to her and we decided to give it a go! Today I am so excited to share my experience on how I’ve been working on healing the gut with a functional nutritionist.
First let me share a little about Gina and what she does:
Gina Jones is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist specializing in Functional Medicine Nutrition. Gina holds a Masters degree in Clinical Nutrition from Case Western Reserve University.
Gina is both academically and professionally trained from Cleveland Clinic Foundation and an alumnus of Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. Through healing her own health struggles with autoimmune diseases, thyroid disease, and hormone imbalance; Gina has found her passion in practicing Functional Medicine Nutrition.
Gina is owner of INW Center where she now helps women balance their gut, thyroid and hormones using real food and restorative lifestyle.
Gina has successfully improved patient vitality and health through the functional medicine, patient-centered approach.
Gina has contributed to major publications such as: Parent Magazine, Vitamin Shoppe, The Thyroid Cure, A Sweat Life and more.
Getting started:
To get started, I filled out a short questionnaire about my symptoms, history etc. and then we scheduled our first call. Our initial call was all about history; she already knew I had a history with anxiety so we discussed that and other symptoms/issues I’d been experiencing. We talked about a few different tests we could do and then we’d come up with a plan from there. The first test was a stool test. Not even going to lie, this test was not my favorite haha but it can tell us so much about what’s going on inside the gut.
From that test, in simple terms, we found out that I had some bad bacteria but was also missing some good bacteria. So the first step in the process was getting rid of the bad bacteria and then introducing some of the good bacteria back in. I also had some Candida (yeast) and H. Pylori so we had a plan to treat those as well.
We also discovered I had a mild gluten sensitivity and decided that I should cut out gluten to see if that helped any of my stomach issues. At first it was a challenge because there’s gluten in a lot of random things (soy sauce and Twizzlers were the biggest shockers haha) but there are SO many options out there that I quickly learned how to navigate.
Next steps:
Gina recommended a combination of supplements for me to start taking in addition to the nutritional side of things. I took the supplements for a couple of weeks and would say I definitely noticed a difference. I was less bloated and my bathroom behaviors changed a bit (no need to go into details there) haha but I definitely noticed some changes! Once I finished that, we moved onto the next phase of healing my gut which was a new set of supplements. I’m currently in that phase and it will be a few weeks before I have anything else to report on that!
In addition to the stool test, we also ran a hormone test. This was SUPER interesting and once we finish with the gut protocol, we’ll start working on some of the things that popped up on my hormone test. One of the things that I thought was most interesting was my cortisol levels. According to the hormone test, my cortisol levels are elevated overnight and in the morning. Throughout the course of the day, my cortisol levels drop and there’s a huge drop in the afternoon, which is usually when I feel extreme fatigue. And then right before bed, they start to rise again. Go figure! So we’re definitely going to touch on that along with increasing my testosterone (yes, women have that too and mine is slightly lower than it should be) along with some estrogen issues as well.
Will I ever know the cause of my POTS? Maybe, maybe not. But if I can alleviate some of my symptoms and work on becoming healthier overall, I think it will help manage my POTS better in general. Gina has been such a light in this process and healing my body and I’m excited to continue this journey with her.
She offers free discovery calls so if you think you could benefit from working with her (you might not even know!), schedule a free call and see what she thinks! You’ll fill out the short questionnaire and then go from there!
We’re still working on some of the issues that have come up since we began working together and I will continue to share those results as I get them! Stay tuned for part 2!
Have any questions for me or Gina? Leave them below! And you can also take advantage of a FREE offer below to learn more about thyroid and gut health!
You can also take a quiz here to see how she can help you!