If you or someone you love lives with anxiety, racing thoughts, “borderline” panic attacks, and a nervous system stuck in “on” mode, then this episode is for you.
In this case study, I walk through a new patient in our practice: a 26‑year‑old lawyer in Scottsdale preparing for the bar exam. He’s got a bright, promising life ahead of him, but his baseline anxiety is 2–3 out of 10 with spikes into near‑panic, plus abdominal pain, bloating, constant sighing, racing thoughts, poor sleep, chest tightness, and nausea when the anxiety flares. Some supplements take the edge off, but he’s still groggy and stuck. He came to us after reading another case where a young man’s OCD improved alongside large aluminum and copper elimination, wanting to know: what am I missing?
In this episode, I show you how I actually think about anxiety in practice. We cover dysfunctional breathing mechanics and CO₂, why some people feel calmer under pressure and anxious when nothing is happening, how under‑eating and low protein diets leave high-performers depleted, and the forgotten mineral (potassium) that can make or break your well-being. I also share simple, practical questions you can ask yourself to see which of these patterns might be driving your own symptoms.
This is the same repair‑deficit framework I lay out in my book The End of Autoimmunity, now available on Amazon or here.
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As always, this is education, not medical advice. See our disclaimers here.
Until next time, be well,
Dr. Stillman
Here’s exactly what we cover
00:00 – New format: why Dr. Stillman is shifting from pure Q&A to anonymized case studies from the practice, and how this helps you see the full journey from first visit to follow‑ups
00:26 – Today’s topic: why you’re tired, anxious, and your hormones aren’t working, and how one case can illustrate the bigger pattern
01:27 – Case 1: a 36‑year‑old mom of multiple kids, church staff, musician, and exercise instructor who developed a severe neurological illness (Guillain‑Barré), landed in the ICU, and nearly needed intubation
01:46 – Her starting point: if “0” was in the ICU and “10” was where she wanted to be, she was at “4 out of 10” when she joined the practice, months after leaving the hospital
02:30 – What we did: personalized supplements based on labs, standard Stillman protocols for diet, lifestyle, and exercise, and careful follow‑up
02:30–02:48 – Her progress after a few months: 7/10 energy, 8/10 mental clarity, better sleep, clothes fitting differently, and improving allergies
02:50 – Why she was still so exhausted months after ICU: how acute illness and stress deplete minerals, why a normal diet can’t easily rebuild them, and why minerals are the “spark plugs of life” for energy, sleep, and mental clarity
03:35 – Why nutrition still has to be the foundation, but why food alone often isn’t enough to fix months or years of depletion
04:05 – What happens when you introduce the right doses of supplemental nutrients into a depleted system, and why results can sometimes show up in days to weeks
04:54 – Why things like nutrient patches, red light therapy, hyperbaric oxygen, and vitamin C often don’t “work” for people in this situation
05:23 – Stress‑based therapies: how hyperbaric and similar tools are controlled forms of stress, why you need mineral and nutrient reserves to respond to them, and what it means when one session helps and the next makes you worse
06:17 – The pattern we see: patients coming in as the 4th or 5th practice after “trying everything,” and why something more fundamental is usually missing
06:21 – Foundation first: minerals, vitamins, light environment, simple movement (like three 10‑minute walks), then stacking higher‑level therapies on top
07:20 – How fatigue and brain fog show up on blood and hair mineral testing: low zinc, low magnesium, copper high or low, and patterns of minerals high or low in the hair
08:15 – Hair interpretation: what it means when minerals are high (loss of control, “credit card debt” analogy) versus low (no supply or no energy to use them)
09:00 – Heavy metals: aluminum, mercury, and others on hair tests, and how they interfere with the minerals your brain and nerves need to work
09:32 – Fatigue as a nervous‑system problem: why “I’m tired” is often “my brain and nerves are exhausted,” and what that implies for treatment
09:59 – Medications as gas pedals: why stimulants and antidepressants can’t work without “gas in the tank,” and the pattern of rising doses with falling benefit
10:55 – Mercury and fatigue/brain fog: why Dr. Stillman routinely looks for mercury, how common meaningful elevations really are, and why they’re under‑tested
12:16 – Source control: high‑mercury fish, dental amalgams, and basic water and food strategies to reduce incoming metals before deeper detox
13:53 – The hormone women need to calm down and sleep: progesterone, how modern light and lifestyle deplete it, and why mid‑30s is such a vulnerable window
14:44 – The symptom spiral of low progesterone: racing thoughts, anxiety, poor sleep, low productivity, more anxiety, and how bioidentical progesterone can sometimes “reset” the system so deeper work can happen
Additional Resources
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This podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice.
