Thewellchat

01/31/2026

I get it. Food is culture. Food is family. Food is identity. But sometimes the food culture keeps us stuck in symptoms.

And when symptoms won’t budge, we have to separate who we are from what our body can tolerate right now.

Removing certain foods short-term isn’t punishment — it’s information.

What improves?
What worsens?
What actually matters?

Most of the time, this isn’t forever.
It’s a strategic pause so healing can actually happen.

✨ Culture stays. Data guides. Healing improves.

👉what was the funniest thing your family has said to you to push foods?!

01/04/2026

When a child withholds after painful or uncomfortable stools, the fear often stays even after stool consistency changes. Nervous system work helps restore safety — but lasting progress comes from understanding why constipation or painful p**ps happened in the first place. In my work, I look at both sides of the equation: the nervous system and upstream gut drivers, often using tools like GI-MAP stool testing and SIBO testing to guide the process. If this resonates and you want support figuring out what’s driving this for your child, DM “LETTER” for my welcome letter and next steps.

01/04/2026

When a child withholds after painful or uncomfortable stools, the fear often stays even after stool consistency changes. Nervous system work helps restore safety — but lasting progress comes from understanding why constipation or painful p**ps happened in the first place. In my work, I look at both sides of the equation: the nervous system and upstream gut drivers, often using tools like GI-MAP stool testing and SIBO testing to guide the process. If this resonates and you want support figuring out what’s driving this for your child, DM “LETTER” for my welcome letter and next steps.
💛

12/12/2025

Contrary to popular belief, leaner meats, fish (and berries) are the easiest foods to digest (and the most nutrient dense).

This is because they don’t sit & ferment in the gut providing lots of food-fodder to microbial overgrowths.

What’s your experience?

11/12/2025

12/31/2024

A stool test alone would not have uncovered SIBO! (stool testing is never diagnostic for SIBO!) . You need a breath test!

In studies, 75% of people diagnosed with IBS tested positive for SIBO! SIBO is an up-stream driver of IBS symptoms!

In the study, once SIBO was eradicated, their IBS symptoms significantly improved if not alleviated.

Work with a gut savvy FMP who adequately prioritize which testing makes the most sense and which form of SIBO testing to order. Not all SIBO testing is equal!

remember that herbal antibiotics were equally well as pharmaceutical antibiotics so when you’re trying to heal your gut…This is a big deal!

We got her 50% better with targeted lifestyle, diet and supportive supplement changes alone…
now to address what’s in testing and I expect her life to improve significantly !

If you’d like to work with me, reach out 🙂

12/28/2024

TO CLEAN-OUT OR NOT TO CLEAN OUT.
Here is what I find…Child goes to GI dr & they find backed up stool & suggests a “clean-out”. Sounds so promising right?

However, I find that chronic constipation is so often not (never… in my practice) caused by a “blockage”. I’ve not seen this to be the cause for even severe and chronic constipation in my gut-focused Functional Medicine Practice.

This is because once a clean-out is done, inevitably the person goes right back to being constipated! Every time. A “clean out” has never resolved constipation past the “1-time clean out” (as far as I have seen). This is because…the questions remains: what caused the blockage in the first place? Answer: Slowed motility!So what causes slowed motility?…not the blockage, the blockage was the EFFECT. So clearing that does not fix the root cause.

Clean outs have nasty negative side effects. It is common that after a clean out, folks get sick…of some sort. That’s because cleaouts do what it sounds like, “clean out”…not just stool but also our BENEFICIAL microbial friends (bacteria). However, we don’t want a “clean” gut, we want a gut with abundant & diverse beneficial bacterial species…because that is what keeps the negative bacterial species in check!

The goal is not liquid & clear diarrhea but rather:
✔️daily
✔️non-urgent
✔️unstrained
✔️log-like bowel movements (BMs)

If there is some blockage, then w/ each BM, pieces will break off & clear in time.

Of course one has to do what is comfortable for them. So check with your doctor of course 😊 and do what resonates….while working on the root cause of the constipation (the magic piece)!

Follow for more :)

11/24/2024

I was a Doctor snob!

Only a Dr in “Best Doctors” magazines, in NYC at TOP teaching hospitals would do for me. Until they failed me. And my kids.

I was a complex case: GI issues, SIBO, candida, H-Pylori, 4 auto immune diseases, suddenly anaphylactic, extreme bloating +more.

I had a career I thought would last me a life time with a thriving practice in the world of speech pathology.

When it was a NOT an MD (not even in NYC but in Oregon) but a functional medicine practitioner who healed my complex health issues, I had to leave my practice and become her.

If you are not getting better, don’t want to be put on pharmaceuticals & go from dr to dr (to dr), then reach out.

11/16/2024

It’s TOMORROW! JOIN US!
Saturday 11/16 at 11am in Garwood!
Free presentation on the Gut-Brain Connection.
I’ll be talking on IBS, SIBO, Food Sensitivites, Reflux, Bloat, Constipation +
Functional medicine for the win…every time.

11/01/2024

Before and after results of G.I. Map stool testing.

10 months apart.

56-year-old female client with decades long G.I. issues.

H-pylori, Candida & Parasite eradicated.

This isn’t rocket science 🙂 

10/18/2024

Tannins are highest in Black tea but they are also in herbal teas, coffee, wine & chocolate.

Tannins are a diuretic and an antinutirent meaning they bind to minerals in your body so you don’t well absorb them! Think Zinc, Copper, Magnesium, Iron & Calcium deficiencies!

There are many reasons you may not be well absorbing your nutrients and compromised gut health is the biggest reason, add drinking lots of black tea to that equation and there can be significant struggle to absorb your minerals!

Low or no tannin teas are:
Green Tea
Ginger
Ginkgo Biloba
Jasmine
His is us
Rose hip
Peppermint
Robins
Chamomile
Darjeeling

Tannins can affect kidney health because they interact with cholesterol in the kidneys, promoting kidney stones!

Let’s connect :) and follow for more like this.