"They haven't felt this good in a long time."
Three real cases from recent visits. What changed, what got the credit, and why it matters.
This Week in Practice
These emails are pulled from real visit transcripts at our practice. Quotes are verbatim; cases are de‑identified and minor details are changed to protect privacy.
None of this guarantees results. These patients did what we recommended. Not all patients do. We cannot guarantee anything to anyone.
Are you putting in the work?
But still feeling stuck?
We get it. We see it every week in practice. Patients who have been struggling under the burden of symptoms for years, even decades, are who we typically work with. They’ve “tried everything.”
Then they come to work with us, and things like this happen.
Enjoy this inaugural issue of “This Week in Practice,” which we plan to publish every Friday.
7 Lbs Down, Blood Pressure Normalized, Knees Back in Motion in Under 3 Months
Blood pressure running in the 165s and 170s over high 80s and 90s.
Knee pain a 7 or 8 on the stairs.
Weight stuck at 192 lbs.
He was “fine.” Ladies, you know what that means.
He’s not dying right now.
And he’s too proud to admit he’s struggling except in a quiet voice that no one but you can hear.
Here’s what we did that moved the needle for him.
Our food sensitivity test flagged wheat and whole milk. He cut them out completely.
We added vitamin C, MSM at 16 g/day, iodine, and a mineral/vitamin protocol personalized to his labs.
Three months later…
He had lost 6 pounds. He weighed-in at 186.
His blood pressure, which had been flirting with stroke territory, was 113/76, 124/80, 128/69. Only one in five readings was elevated.
His knee pain was almost gone.
He told me: “The weight just fell off when I stopped eating the stuff in the yellow. I stopped the creamy wheat every morning and my pants are falling down.”
And the knee pain:
“They haven’t felt this good in a long time. I don’t think I’m going to need a knee replacement.”
No new medications. No surgery. Food elimination, MSM, vitamin C, and a personalized supplement protocol.
The root cause of these issues? Chronic inflammation, which eventually turns into autoimmunity with enough time and repair deficit. His journey started with an Inflammation and Autoimmunity Assessment with a member of my team. We see men like him in this assessment every week.
Four Pain-Free Nights After Relying on Nightly Aleve
Inflammatory joint pain came on her out of the blue. It starts as a nuisance you just want to ignore. It turns into a quiet monster that steals your joy.
She had gotten used to sleepless nights, stick, achy mornings, and handing jars to her husband because she couldn’t open them herself anymore.
Here’s what we did to get her back in action:
We started our MSM protocol, which pushes up to 16 to 20 g/day. Most people use doses lower than this, then say, “it doesn’t work.” MSM works, most people just never use enough, because 20 grams a day seems like a lot.
The result?
Four consecutive days without pain, and without Aleve.
Her son’s prom kept her up late that weekend and the pain crept back. Then it cleared again. That’s not a coincidence. That’s a signal.
She said: “I can’t open jars yet in the morning, but four days of no pain is new for me. I didn’t realize it was keeping me awake until it stopped.”
We normalize so much suffering so slowly that we forget what baseline actually felt like. We do this so it doesn’t drive us insane. My goal for every patient is to normalize wellness. To normalize a sense of wholeness. To normalize being able to use their body to do what they love most.
If you’re looking to heal, prioritize and protect your sleep. You can’t heal when you’re in a major sleep deficit.
This is the kind of case we see every week in our Inflammation and Autoimmunity Assessments, where we help people like her figure out what the best path forward is.
“I Can Take a Deep Breath Without Coughing. I Haven’t Been Able to Do That in Years.”
She came in with interstitial lung disease, diagnosed, monitored monthly by her pulmonologist, considered stable. Her hope was just, “not to get worse.” That was the best she had been told to hope for.
Stable meant:
Daily and near constant coughing
Feeling short of breath even walking on a slight incline
Here’s what we found and here’s what we did:
Her food allergy test showed a 6.0 reactivity score to an artificial sweetener. She had been taking it in her coffee for years. She cut it out that day.
We added a personalized vitamin and mineral protocol, and vitamin C powder.
Her prescription medications stayed exactly the same.
Then one morning, she noticed something.
“I said, wait a minute. I can actually take a deep breath without coughing. I haven’t been able to do that in years.”
Let that sink in. She had struggled with this for years. We didn’t do this with drugs or surgeries. We removed what was burdening the body. We added back what it needed to heal. The key was knowing what those things were, and starting them in the right order.
When the body is constantly reacting to a food or environmental allergen, healing gets put on the back burner. It sits there, waiting for space and resources to free up.
We see cases like this all the time. Other doctors say, “there’s nothing we can do but hope you won’t get worse.”
We help patients like her sort out what to do about problems like this every week in our Inflammation and Autoimmunity Assessment.
A Thought Before I Go
If this seems simple enough - good.
The devil, I’ve found, is in the details. We have to take a good look at him. Details don’t always stand out. They have to be scrutinized. We test hundreds of biomarkers and spend hours in consultation with patients to come up with these plans.
You might need that level of care. You might not. We help people sort out what they need, and their best path forward, in our Inflammation and Autoimmunity Assessment.
Each of these patients was told to accept their fate. Get ready for knee surgery. Buy bigger clothes. Stock up on pain-killers. Monitor your disease and pray it doesn’t get worse.
We’re building a better way. The results speak for themselves. Sometimes it’s pants falling down. Sometimes it’s four mornings without reaching for the Aleve. Sometimes it’s just being able to take a deep breath of fresh air. Doesn’t that sound nice?
Too many people are told they’re stable while they’re taking Aleve every night, dreading the stairs, or losing ground on a lung function test. Every one of these patients had seen other doctors. Every one of them had something that was missed.
If you see yourself in any of these stories and you’re tired of guessing and going it alone, let’s talk.
If you’re interested in working with us to get to the bottom of your health concerns, apply for consultation with our team today.
As always, discuss any changes with your own licensed clinician. Read our full disclaimers, disclosures, and our position on health freedom here.
Until next time, be well,
Dr. Stillman
Educational content only. Not medical advice. See full disclaimers.