Stuck in symptom "whack-a-mole" and reacting to protocols when you have mast cell activation or POTS

When you are trapped in the symptom whack-a-mole cycle, it's super common to treat every symptom in isolation (heaven knows that’s how we’ve moved in medicine… a specialist for each “system” of the body instead of treating the body as a holistic being).

You take antihistamines for mast cell flares, load up on salt and compression gear for blood pressure drops, and downsize life to keep from kicking yourself into a flare.

As painful as these symptoms are, your body is actually executing a brilliant survival strategy based on the signals it’s receiving:

Energy is scarce and/or more often metabolic waste (which creates inflammation) is high. To keep from burning out, I’ve got to throttle energy production down. I’ll do that by shuttling T4 (thyroid hormone) down the energy conservation route. (Again, if you haven't read that previous article, head here and at least read the Alice in Wonderland analogy to know what I'm talking about - you just landed on post 9 or 10 in this series).

Demanding more energy from a cell that is choking on its own metabolic waste won't work. You have to focus on rebuilding the body’s capacity to clear the waste. Actually, that’s too simplistic. It takes energy to clear waste. So, you have to do both. Increase the body’s capacity to create energy and clear the waste at the same time.

That’s what we do inside the Reclaim Wellness Intensive.

In case you’re thinking about clicking off because you just realized you hit a sales page in disguise, read this to the end. I’m willing to bet something you read below resonates.

The Reclaim Wellness Intensive: The Physiologic Reset for MCAS and POTS/dysautonomia

The Reclaim Wellness Intensive is the program I wish I’d had when I started experiencing dysautonomia, back when I was told it was “perimenopause”.

This is the program I wish I’d had when I was struggling so much with low thyroid (and dismissed by 12+ different practitioners for over two years before finally finding someone who knew how to test for Hashimoto’s).

This is the program I wish I’d had when I finally found a thyroid literate doctor and was titrating up on thyroid replacement hormone. I’m convinced it would have saved me the struggle with mast cell activation.

This is the program I wish I’d had when my heart rate went to 140+ beats per minute on a morning dog walk.

It’s now accessible for you.

Phase 1: Increasing Cellular Energy & Clearance Capacity so the brain fog leaves along with the histamine

You cannot force a cell that is "smoking itself out" with metabolic waste (exhaust) to produce more energy. When cellular waste products, inflammatory debris, and uncleared metabolites are backed up, trying to boost metabolism is like pressing the gas pedal with a clogged exhaust pipe.

You also can’t get a car to move without gas (these analogies made so much more sense 10 years ago). This phase threads the needle focusing on both increasing the body’s ability to create energy and its ability to clear metabolic exhaust (the waste generated when it creates energy).

I won’t pretend this part of the program is the generic “supporting Phase 1 and Phase 2 detox pathways”. Yes, it supports both phases and (in my mind more importantly) it also supports what’s going on alongside those two detox pathways in the body. If you’ve ever had the sensation that it’s like the cells of your body aren’t giving and receiving as they should (like they’re not releasing metabolic waste and receiving nutrients or like the cells seem to be locked down), this is your phase.

If you’ve ever had the inner knowing that it’s like someway somehow your body’s still holding onto waste (even though you’re having daily bowel movements), this is your phase.

If you’ve ever had that “brain on fire” feeling or suspect you struggle with clearing ammonia and sulfur, this is your phase.

Phase 2: Energy Mobilization | Overcoming Low DAO and Air Hunger

As energy and clearance capacity increase, we begin to look at ways to reactivate the body’s innate ability to move energy.

If you struggle with hypoxia (suspect you’re low oxygen, feels like air hunger or high heart rate), this is for you.

If you struggle with mast cell activation, this phase is also for you (much of what we’re doing here supports reduced inflammation and also supports the body in making its own DAO enzyme and supporting other pathways to clear histamine).

If you sometimes feel you can’t go more than two hours without eating, this phase is for you.

If you’ve been told you have iron deficient anemia, this phase is for you.

Phase 3: Clearing Energy Drains (and Addressing Stealth Infections)

I was stuck between phases 2 and 3 for a long time. I kept figuring my way out of symptom after symptom and just could not figure out why it seemed like every time I created some capacity, my energy margin disappeared and a new symptom showed up. For me, it was an unholy combination of Lyme and Lyme co-infections (that I thought I’d taken care of 14 years earlier) with viral reactivation (think Epstein Barr aka mono).

It took years for me to figure out what was going on and to figure out that I couldn’t keep kicking the can down the road, I had to finally face these. Problem was, I reacted to every protocol I started. Cowden. Klinghardt. Many others.

It took a great deal of time (and I can’t tell you how many days I lost in full flare along the way) to figure out how to use these protocols without cratering. If you’ve ever started a Lyme protocol and had to stop less than a week in because the symptom flare was so severe you couldn’t handle it, this entire program is for you. What we do in Phases 1 and 2 preps the body to finally have enough bandwidth to move through clearing these energy drains (no matter what form they take).

This phase of the program goes beyond Lyme and Lyme co-infections. We talk about mold and viruses and parasites. We also talk about other sources of energy drains (namely inflammation) and how to support the body through it all.

Why this intensive exists

There was a moment when I realized I couldn't keep doing this.

I could keep figuring out the symptom in front of me and get temporary relief. I was getting pretty damn good at that. Eventually, it dawned on me that I was struggling with the same thing in different clothes.

The chronic UTI symptoms became something else. The low thyroid became something else. The histamine reactions became something else. The “brain on fire” became something else. The dysautonomia that started years ago progressed, transformed, and morphed along the way, persisting as the throughline that finally made me ask myself “Where does this trajectory end?”

I didn't want to spend the next 20 years becoming increasingly limited by these symptoms. I didn't want to arrive at what I consider the prime of my life - finally having more freedom, more time, and enough money to do some of the things I'd wanted to do my entire life - with a body too depleted to actually enjoy any of it.

And frankly, I wasn't willing to ignore where that trajectory could ultimately lead. Heart disease (which does not run in my family). Early dementia. A body increasingly unable to meet my own needs of simply walking through the day.

I didn't want to get better at managing symptoms. I wanted to change the trajectory.

And, along the way, there were enough setbacks, enough down days, enough flares, enough times where I lost confidence in myself that I was on the right path at all. When things finally started turning around, I knew I had to map what I’d learned to help others navigate their own way.

That's ultimately what Reclaim Wellness Intensive grew out of. My own personal struggle with an endless carousel of symptoms and the recognition that simply chasing whatever symptom is screaming the loudest isn’t the same thing as changing the physiology that keeps giving those symptoms another place to show up.

If you've reached your own version of “I cannot keep doing this,” take a look inside this program here.