“I haven’t been the same since.”
I hear this a lot.
It gets blamed on long COVID, Epstein-Barr, Candida, Mycoplasma, and more.
Here’s what I can tell you about these cases.
Everything works for someone and something works for everyone.
The road back from one of these illnesses looks different for different people. That’s why I have a long list of patients who tried this and that protocol or cleanse with great results, only to relapse and end up back at square one, wondering, “what’s really wrong with me?”
What’s the solution in these cases?
Comprehensive testing, evaluation, and a coherent plan worked consistently.
What does that look like?
Here’s a case to give you an idea of what’s possible.
When we first met in May 2026, Amy was 36, a church administrator in Tallahassee, a mom, and exercise instructor.
She had been young and healthy until a recent bout of Guillain-Barre. In this autoimmune disease, the nervous system attacks the nerves innervating your muscles and causes paralysis starting at the toes and ascending up the body.
In extreme cases, patients lose the ability to breath and are on mechanical ventilation in the ICU for months. The rehabilitation is extremely long and difficult. These patients never come out of the ICU “at baseline.” They are generally tired, foggy, and inflamed (which is what we specialize in).
Amy had retained the ability to breathe through her illness, thankfully, but she was still tired, foggy, and inflamed when she left the ICU. Her brain fog was “really messing with me really bad.” Her nerves felt fragile. Her overall well-being was a 4 out of 10, on a scale where 0 was “ICU, near intubation” and 10 was her best adult health.
She was using nutrient patches, vitamin C, red light, nebulizers, hyperbaric oxygen, and exercises.
She was “doing all the things” and still feeling less than well. This is when most patients reach out to us.
Where She Started
Daily symptoms in May included:
Post‑Guillain‑Barré nerve pain and fatigue
Brain fog that made her feel “not herself” at work, at church, and with her kids
Sleep that didn’t refresh her
Seasonal allergies that got in the way of normal, day-to-day life
Here’s what we found in her work up:
She had significant copper toxicity (you can see the body dumping it in the first test)
Extreme three highs - she’s losing calcium, magnesium, and sodium, because her body can’t control them
Elevated aluminum, but low mercury despite the presence of a mercury-containing dental filling
One of the lowest selenium levels in the practice
Interestingly, her blood tests showed “normal” levels of her minerals, even by my standards. This is another example of why we don’t rely on blood levels alone, but on the patient’s history and hair testing results.
What We Did Differently
Here’s what we did differently:
Added a low dose of progesterone to support her sleep and her nervous system
Replaced minerals she was losing and badly needed to replace
Started vitamin C, MSM, and sauna with extra minerals afterward to replace losses
Recommended mercury dental filling/amalgam removal (I wrote a guide on dentistry you can read at stillmanmd.com/autoimmunity, if you want to learn more).
Tapered medications she didn’t feel she needed anymore
This process takes months. Here’s how she felt when we followed up a few months into the process.
Where She Is Now
By July 2026, two months later, Amy was feeling much better.
I asked her, “if zero is where we started and ten is where you’d like to be, where are we now?” Here’s exactly what she said:
Energy: 7/10
Mental clarity: 8/10
Body composition: clothes fitting better, wearing shorts that had been uncomfortable before
Sleep: “a lot better,” though still a work in progress
Allergies: noticeably less severe
I often ask patients, “what gets the credit for your improvement?” I ask them to assign each a clear number as a percent of their overall improvement.
Here’s what she said:
Sauna: 30%
Supplements and minerals: 20%
Dr. Stillman’s Detox powder: 10%
(you can find the recipe at stillmanmd.com/autoimmunity).
Walking and grounding: 10%
Progesterone: 10%
Iodine: 10%
Vitamin D: 10%
Success in cases like this is usually the result of small, sometimes seemingly inconsequential, daily habits done consistently over a long enough period of time.
Whenever patients get discouraged about the journey, I always encourage them that the key is consistency in the small things. Some of them don’t want to hear that, because it means giving up the things that are truly making them sick.
Amy is feeling much, much better thanks to a comprehensive plan, executed consistently, over a long enough period of time.
I wrote more about this in Chapter 2 of my book, “The End of Autoimmunity.” If you haven’t already, pick up a copy today.
Things to Think About
A few lessons from Amy’s story:
We can accelerate recovery from a major illness with the right natural interventions, like bioidentical hormones, minerals, and vitamins
HTMA can show stress and heavy metals that blood work misses. We replace based (mostly) on the HTMA, not the blood work. Most clinicians don’t run an HTMA, and they don’t know what they’re missing. Many who do run an HTMA don’t know how to properly interpret it.
Progesterone is an incredibly supportive hormone for healing in women. The effect it has on sleep and nerve health can be transformational.
Amy mentioned weight loss at the tail end of our time together - when you restore the body’s minerals and add critical daily habits, done consistently, that’s when you’ll typically see weight start to drop and clothes start to fit better
If you enjoyed this post, I hope you’ll subscribe for more “A Moment with Dr. Stillman” posts. If you know someone this reminds you of, consider forwarding it to them. It might help them make the breakthrough they’ve been looking for.
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
P.S. If you’re tired, foggy, and inflamed, and you’re ready for root-cause medical care, book an evaluation with myself or a member of our team.
During the evaluation, we’ll:
Review your history and current symptoms
What you’ve tried, what’s worked, and what hasn’t
Get you clarity on where to go next, whether that’s becoming a member of our practice or a referral to a trusted partner of ours
For a limited time, we’re also including a copy of my new book, The End of Autoimmunity, so you can learn more about our process.
Book your evaluation today. If you’re tired, foggy, and inflamed, we’d love to help you reclaim your health.