My name is Dr. Tom Rofrano from the Natural Medicine Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. I’ve had the opportunity to see over 100,000 patient visits over the last 37 years, many of whom often have had thyroid issues and ferritin abnormalities. Today I’m going to talk about a 60-year-old patient who had gut symptoms, fatigue, skin issues, and lack of memory and concentration. He was overweight, had high blood pressure, and was diagnosed with diabetes two years ago.
Lowered A1C 8.6 to 5.6 in Five Weeks
I did an evaluation, lab testing, and recommended a specific diet and supplements. We did a follow up test, and he had lowered his A1C from 8.6 to 5.6 and his glucose from 174 to 80 in just five weeks.
His A1C improved 35% and his ferritin improved 30%, from 204 to 131. And this is while he was eating beef and taking vitamin C, so you can lower your ferritin while you’re doing both. A ferritin level of 204 is out of range, and some doctors will say a ferritin level up to 1000 is okay, but optimal ferritin is approximately 50 to 80 ng/ml.
More Physical and Lab Improvements
The patient’s inflammation decreased by over 50% in five weeks to optimal levels, and his kidney/liver function and adrenal function markers improved. One thing that did go up was his testosterone levels that increased over 200 points in five weeks without taking hormones. When the body is in a healthy state, you start to optimize other things. He said in the first six weeks he had lost 30 pounds while his glucose levels dropped dramatically. He was also able to decrease his diabetes medication by 50%.
Get a More Complete Lab Test
The first step is getting the proper testing. Your doctor will typically order CBC, chemistry panel, lipids, and TSH. I think it is very important to also check ferritin, iron TIBC and saturation, CRP, GGT, LDH, liver function, insulin, A1c, uric acid, and a full thyroid panel. Besides TSH, free T3, free T4, TPO and thyroglobulin antibodies. l also check adrenal function-DHEA and cortisol, testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, IGF1, SHBG, and homocysteine.
Uncovering the Root Causes with Functional LabTests
Functional lab tests can tell you the underlying root causes. These include testing for deficiencies, toxins, infections, hormonal imbalance, and food reactions. For instance, this patient had multiple deficiencies, toxins, above optimal levels of mercury, infections, and Candida yeast overgrowth.
He had hormonal imbalance, adrenal dysfunction, low testosterone, and food reactions. He had celiac genetics and gluten sensitivity as well as leaky gut. Once discovering the root causes, I developed a treatment plan to help him get better.
Treating the Patient with Diet and Supplements
The first step of treatment is diet and supplements. I start patients on the FreeDiet® that I developed years ago when I was figuring out how to treat my own issues. I had autoimmune thyroid Hashimoto’s, rheumatoid arthritis, fatigue, and skin issues. In the process, I came up with an anti-inflammatory diet that I call the FreeDiet® which is free of gluten, grains, sugar, yeast dairy, eggs, soy, legumes, nightshades, and processed foods—those foods commonly responsible for inflammation, digestive, and other chronic health issues.
Go here if you would like a free copy of the FreeDiet® phase 1 food chart.
I started this patient on what I call the Functional Five™, which I find almost everyone needs, which includes ActivMulti™, OmegaSorb™3X fish oil, D3 5000 +K2, Magnesium Malate, and PriobioXtreme™.
For this patient I added in curcumin and cardiometabolic support for healthy inflammation and blood sugar. The CardioMetaboliX™ has berberine and alpha lipoic. I also recommended Resveratrol + Quercetin. I added in vitamins to address the nutritional deficiencies he had, including Vitamin C. He took vitamin C and ate beef, and his ferritin still went down 38% in five weeks.
Let Us Help You Optimize Your Health
Many patients can notice tremendous improvement in energy, digestion, skin, and other physical improvements as well as blood markers when they follow the diet and supplements I put them on. With this patient, he had much improvement in just five weeks.
I believe that if the root causes are discovered and the right solutions are provided, almost anyone can get better. If you’re struggling with health issues, reach out us at info@nmcwellness.com to see if we can help you. I look forward to working with you!