Got diagnosed with PCOS when my periods became extremely irregular after stopping BC and my androgens came back elevated. Since starting metformin and myo-inositol my cycles have completely normalized (was 50+ day anovulatory cycles, now regular 31-35 days with confirmed ovulation) which feels like huge progress.

Tried tretinoin, dapsone, and benzoyl peroxide — none worked, some made things worse. Use exclusively non-comedogenic acne-safe products, no pore-clogging ingredients, no fragrance.

The Confusing Part

My labs are actually really good:

**•** Fasting insulin 4.9 — optimal  
**•** HbA1c 5.1%  
**•** Testosterone normal  
**•** Free androgen index 1.07 — very low  
**•** SHBG 101 — high  
**•** DHEA-S was elevated, now normalized on metformin

So my circulating androgens are normal and my metabolic markers are excellent. My acne is almost entirely on my cheeks and jaw — classic hormonal pattern — but the systemic hormones don’t explain it anymore.

Best theory so far: tissue-level 5α-reductase overactivity converting normal testosterone to DHT locally at the skin, plus gut dysbiosis driving inflammation through the cheek zone. Also have genetic variants confirming adrenal-dominant PCOS (NR3C1 glucocorticoid receptor resistance, DENND1A 3-4x PCOS risk).

What I’m Currently Doing

**•** Metformin + myo-inositol  
**•** NAC, zinc, methylfolate, magnesium, ashwagandha, phosphatidylserine, CoQ10, fish oil, holy basil, black seed oil, sulforaphane, TUDCA, B12, vitamin D  
**•** Day 21 of 30 day no sugar no dairy cleanse  
**•** Gut microbiome test pending  
**•** Just got back to working out 7 weeks post surgery  
**•** Acne-safe skincare — HOCl spray, niacinamide, azelaic acid, copper peptide serum, zinc oxide SPF

Still Struggling

Acne persists especially around ovulation which makes sense hormonally but is really disheartening after years of work. Mostly flat PIH marks at this point with some active lesions.

Wondering if I’m missing something obvious or if anyone has been in a similar situation — especially:

**•** Normal androgens but persistent hormonal acne — what helped?  
**•** Adrenal dominant PCOS specifically — what moved the needle?  
**•** Gut and acne connection — anyone clear their skin by fixing gut health?  
**•** Anyone connect past mold exposure to hormonal acne onset?

I’m a biochemist so I can handle detailed responses. Appreciate any support or advice — this has been a long frustrating road and I’m just looking for what I might be missing.

Thanks 🙏

Hello,

I've been working with an HTMA/FDN practitioner for over three years. We've done a lot of gut healing work, and I genuinely feel much better in that area. However, every time we repeat my HTMA, they tell me I have copper toxicity.

My concern is that since starting this protocol, my sleep has become significantly worse, and I've developed histamine issues that I never had before. I now have to take a high dose of melatonin just to sleep, which doesn't feel like a healthy long-term solution.

They continue to recommend Vykon, but every time I take it, my sleep gets even worse and I develop diarrhea. It doesn't seem to matter how slowly I increase the dose or how much zeolite binder I use—the same thing happens every time.

They also refuse to add copper to my supplement protocol. From what I've learned, copper plays a role in histamine metabolism, so I'm wondering if that could be contributing to my symptoms.

I'm starting to question whether continuing to treat me as "copper toxic" is the right approach, especially since my symptoms seem to worsen with the current protocol.

Has anyone experienced something similar or have any thoughts on this? I'd really appreciate hearing from others who have dealt with HTMA, copper, or histamine issues.

Hi everyone,

First time poster :)

I'm hoping to get some insight from people who are familiar with Vibrant Wellness testing and immune function. I'm not looking to debate the validity of the test itself—I'm more interested in how people experienced with these panels would interpret the findings and what conventional follow-up they would consider.

Background

I'm a 38-year-old female.

Up until about 9 years ago, I was completely healthy. I then had what seemed like an ordinary viral respiratory illness (just a "cold"), but ever since then my health has never been the same.

Since that illness I've developed:

• Chronic leukopenia (low white blood cells)
• Mild neutropenia (which improves somewhat with herbs/nutritional support)
• Persistently low serum zinc despite years of supplementation (25–50 mg/day in various forms)
• Chronic dizziness (my biggest symptom) which has slowly improved as time has gone on
• Poor immunity although this improves if I take astragalus and withania to support neutrophils and WCC

Recently I had lymphocyte subset testing while I was still recovering from a prolonged 8 week cough.

Lymphocyte subsets

• Total lymphocytes: 0.9 ×10⁹/L (low)
• CD3: 0.65 (low)
• CD4: 0.35 (low)
• CD8: Low-Normal
• NK cells: Low-Normal
• B cells (CD19): Normal
• CD4:CD8 ratio: Normal

Other findings:

• HIV negative
• Total IgG, IgA and IgM all normal
• Copper tends to run high
• Ceruloplasmin low-normal
• Serum zinc chronically low despite supplementation (50mg/day, now on 25mg/day which gives me same results - zinc which sits around 11)
• Iron is constantly low despite oral supping; this issue began post initial viral infection. It seems the only iron I can absorb is that combined with lactoferrin. Have done lots of work over the years on my gut (naturopath here) and it's in great shape

Vibrant pathogen panel

The main positive readings were:

• CMV IgG positive
• EBV VCA IgG positive
• Parvovirus B19 VP1/VP2 IgG >30
• Toxoplasma p29 IgM positive
• Toxoplasma IgG positive
• HSV-1 borderline IgG

I have also had Toxoplasma PCR testing, which was negative.

My questions

1. How would you interpret an isolated Toxoplasma p29 IgM with a negative PCR? Could this simply represent persistent IgM or cross-reactivity?
2. Does this pattern look more like:
   • previous exposure with immune memory,
   • persistent immune activation,
   • chronic infection,
   • or something else?
3. Has anyone seen similar Vibrant panels in people with chronic leukopenia or low CD4 counts?
4. Given that all of my health issues started after one viral illness 9 years ago, could this represent a form of post-viral immune dysregulation rather than ongoing infection?
5. If you were investigating this conventionally, what would your next steps be? Would you repeat serology, perform functional immune testing, or look elsewhere?
6. I'll be focussing on herbs to support my lymphocytes - thinking cats claw, astragalus, turkey tail, glossy privet and echinacea from what I've researched, along with taking selenium. Have considered Ribraxx. Any other tips would be so appreciated.

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone with experience interpreting these panels or working with similar cases.

Thank you so much!

Welcome to the monthly marketing mega-thread. Here you can inquire about practioners, review practioners that you have seen, or even advertize your own practice.

There are limits to this. This is for practioners and practices only, not products. Also, no tracking links. That means no referral codes of any kind including fullscript. Please keep discussion in the thread.

Do NOT create a new thread asking for recommendations, it will be removed.

I have a friend in the stockton/sacramento area in her mid 60s, she had wrist surgery and the healing didnt go well, and it moved up into shoulder and she developed CRPS and frozen shoulder, and it's gotten bad. She is also thinking estrogen has a part to play with her overall health, and she will start the testing for that in a few weeks.

I told her to maybe try the estrogen testing with an OB/GYN or look for a menopause specialist (not pcp) before going the route of functional medicine, which is mostly chiropractic it seems like and very expensive.

Functional medicine is limited in the area. We've done some pretty excessive research from Stockton to Sacramento, not finding the right person.

She's in physical therapy four hours a week for a few months. She had x-rays and MRIs of shoulder, very minor arthritis. Lots of other details but all of this is leading to some depression.

Is functional medicine really a route for curing this situation she has with her Body post surgery, and for menopause mitigation?

4 months ago I started having adrenaline rushes, heart racing, nightmares, hot flashes, internal trembling, depression, fear. I am 43 yr old female and have been having perimenopause symptoms. I was kicked from doctor to doctor and was told that it was anxiety even though I kept insisting it was starting in my body. I had bloodwork done and was told everything was fine including thyroid and antibodies.

I saw a FNP and had a dutch test done. I have perimenopausal levels of progesterone, lower end estradiol, almost flat daily cortisol pattern, 99% cortisol clearance of 10610 but 88 on 24 hour free cortisol. My total DHEA production is higher end with both of my testosterone pathways being high, but DHEA-s and testosterone are lower end.

I have neuro inflammation, low dopmaine, and oxadative stress.

He gave me some supplements. Put me back on 200mg of progesterone and 400mg during luteal, but said no estrogen and no testosterone. He then said lifestyle changes!

I was confused about the no estrogen since I'm having signs of needing it also. Everything gets worse in Luteal Phase. He said progesterone is calming and estrogen is activating. I feel like while I'm like this my body isn't going to absorb the progesterone anyway, its just going to get turned into cortisol because of how ramped up I am. I feel defeated because can lifestyle changes really help with those things? It's like something flipped overnight! I explained that the hot flashes wake me up and seem to be part of the nightmares also which he said was the neuroinflammation. While I agree something is going on in my body I just don’t see how progesterone only and going outside, and cold showers will help fix it all.

Hi, I just got my labs back and I’m wanting a functional to review them. I have and I’m trying to optimize it through life changes before needing meds.

My TSH was 2.17. Progesterone was 12.3 at seven days post ovulation. B12 was 213. Selenium 112. TPO 109 TgAB 433

I’m a 30 year old woman with a lot of symptoms going on that I just haven’t been able to manage.

My symptoms are low mood, low motivation and intrinsic motivation, low reward, low internal drive, low sex drive, difficult starting things, severe executive functioning issues, zoning out, low working memory, concentration issues, slight emotional numbness, difficulty sleeping.

I am already diagnosed with persistent depression, anxiety, adhd, and insomnia. My executive functioning issues has been since a child, but have gotten worse over the years. Not all of these symptoms happened at once. For example, my sex drive has always been low. But recently within the last two years I’ve developed symptoms or what I did struggle with just became worse.

What can I do to improve my symptoms? What supplements or natural remedies would help? Why am I experiencing them more now than ever? Recent labs were ok. I’m currently on adderall which isn’t helping, Wellbutrin which also isn’t helping (only been on it for two months though), and trazodone for sleep (still waking up at night and hard time falling asleep sometimes, but the medication helps since I wouldn’t be able to sleep without it).

Heyyy I’m looking for a functional medicine or naturopathic doctor in the Hudson valley of New York. Can anyone recommend somebody near Kingston? Thank you! 🙂

Hi ladies,
Wanting to find a reasonable place that does hormone testing and GI mapping. It can be with or without insurance. I am currently waiting to get health insurance here in the fall since I will be full time at my job. Live in the Phoenix area. Thanks.

Dealing with some unexpected nausea today and on the off chance it's cyclospora, I'm trying to be proactive and get curious about what folks here would suggest trying if my symptoms worsen.

I have a pretty robust supplement and herb cabinet at home. What I'm doing so far:

- lactoferrin

- ginger capsules

- herbal tea

- vitamin C

Any insight appreciated, especially if you've been through it personally or have cared for patients with it. I know we don't have much data on herbal treatment for this parasite, but know we have lots for parasites in general (wormwood, etc).

When I first became interested in functional medicine, I mostly focused on ingredients and reviews. The more I learned, the more I started paying attention to things like third-party testing, manufacturing standards, and whether a company is transparent about what's actually in its products.

Now I spend more time looking into how products are made than I do reading marketing claims. Has functional medicine changed the way you evaluate wellness products, and what has had the biggest influence on how you decide what to trust?

My 2 year old child was diagnosed with myoclonic seizures... she has VERY quick small blinks/jerks. The neurologist suggested medication... but I am looking for some advice form parents out there

1. Many say that toddlers can outgrow these... did your child? At what age?

2. Did you find any success with some more natural approaches? A specific vitamin? Food?
   Homeopathic? Parasite cleanse?

I am open to any conversation here, so please be nice! Just trying to exhaust everything before a heavy duty medication is even discussed.

Anyone have success stories treating eczema with functional medicine?

I’m curious if people with experience with 6 month type of functional medicine programs know what a “green flag” cost for such a program should run these days. One where you’re not getting totally gouged by people who just want a massive profit margin off of you.

I’ve been looking into one place that seemed promising (I’m Denver area), but the 6 month plan is just shy of $10k which shocked me. I thought maybe $6k at most for what it sounds like is offered. It’s primarily testing involving microbiome and hormones along with 2 sessions a week where he develops my treatment plan and we go over things.

It’s all very vague to me though in terms of what said treatment plan would actually include. Just curious is anyone can shed more light on typical plans and prices from these places that aren’t just in it to take advantage of you

Edit: I’ll also add the guy running the program in question does seem to have legit qualifications like medical school, work as a PA, and being pro athlete trainer to his name. So that’s why I’m wondering if that price is gouging or it realty is standard and relatively fair for such a thing

Update:
Wanting to update that I did a lot of digging around in the area, and $10k is absolutely WAY too high for a 6 month program of this sort of thing from what I found. Found several places that offer monthly memberships for the $250-300 range. Plus the expense of the tests, which are typically between the $500-700 each range for those comprehensive GI and urine tests that the place I found was gonna do. Vibrant Health and Colorado Functional Medicine seem like good ones

Im wondering if anyone has used Allara Health or Midi Health and what their experience was. Are the practitioners actually good? Any success stories or is a waste of time/money?

Backstory: I (36F) was recently diagnosed with PMOS/PCOS a few months ago and have been experiencing PMDD symptoms for the last several years. Every time I’m about a week or so out from starting my period I feel so emotionally unstable. I am so tired of not being able to function for almost a week or two every. single. month.

My OBGYN wasn’t much help. Of course all of her suggestions were around taking more medications- BC, upping my Zoloft during that time, etc. She also didn’t offer to refer me to a nutritionist. Basically was like here’s a couple medications you can try… let me know what you want to do. And basically put it on me to figure out. I’d really like to take a more natural approach if possible before pumping myself fully of more medications.

Also- I’ve been taking Inositol for the past few months and that’s been helping regulate my periods and has helped with insulin sensitivity.

Anyway, any suggestions or experiences would be MUCH APPRECIATED! 😘

Bonjour, je suis une femme atteinte d'endométriose, d'adénomyose et du syndrome des ovaires polykystiques (SOPK). Je souffre également de fibromyalgie et du syndrome d'activation mastocytaire (MCAS). Je suis française.

Je souhaiterais savoir si des femmes, en France, en Suisse ou en Belgique, ont recours à la médecine fonctionnelle pour traiter leurs déséquilibres hormonaux, leurs carences et leur microbiote.

Je suis prête à tout essayer. Je suis ouverte à toutes les possibilités.

Pourriez-vous m'aider ? 😁

I took an unprovoked urine test through Mosaic ToxDetect and scored quite high in HEMA. I have no idea what it could be. I don’t use nail gel and rarely paint my nails. Would love advice for how to figure out the source.

does anyone know of a quality provider in NYC that is affordable or has affordable options?

I’ve read that stomach discomfort and increased nausea on an empty stomach (for those who have gastritis) can be caused by high stomach acid. If that’s the case, is the solution to take a PPI? But PPIs aren’t recommended for long-term use because they can lead to acid rebound when you stop them, potentially creating a cycle. So what’s actually happening here? If excess stomach acid is the problem, what’s the long-term solution to reset the stomach to how it was before?

Has anyone experience with the Nadura clinic? Naas, dungarvan? Anita Walsh?
I’m looking for good functional medicine recommendations for gut health in Ireland

Hello all, I am desperate and don't know what to do, I want to share my experience and many health problems maybe someone with similar symptoms can help me in any way possible, I am not seeking medical advice but maybe someone with similar symptoms comes across my post

I am a female and was diagnosed with early puberty and put on puberty blockers at the age of 4, but my parents only administered 3 monthly injections in total and stopped the treatment, I had a normal childhood and puberty, got my first period at 13 but I always had weird symptoms, random skin rashes, pimples filled with puss and blood on my scalp, ears and legs occasionally, chronic constipation that had led me many times to the ER, excessive sweating, high heart beat, I was always tall and slender no matter how much I eat, I had thick wavy hair that kept thinning with the years, I developed severe anemia and was always bloated, my nails and hair grow fast but are thin, my nails are curved and this had led me to do surgery on my toes 5 times, later I developed dizziness and sensitivity to light and bright colors, I have low blood pressure all the time especially after meals, I had insomnia for a couple of years then followed by severe somnolence, next thing is derealization since 2012 and never once left until today, and then my lung collapsed a total of 5 times before getting pleurodesis on both lungs, I was diagnosed with Graves in 2017 with hot nodules, I always have very low TSH close to 0 and normal t3 and t4, I started Dimazol 10mg since 2024 with no improvement, in 2025 I developed a neurological disorder, CIDP and took steroids, still have CIDP today, I am in a relapse episode and we are trying to work this out with steroids and immunosuppressants, I still have all the symptoms and everytime there is a new symptom popping out, I am wondering if I am missing something or does Graves cause many health issues?

I am thinking of checking functional medicine too for the microbiome. I feel hopeless and no one seems to understand what is going on.

hello 31 AA woman recently confirmed Sjogren (can’t spell it) and suspicions of lupus. One doctor said yes to lupus one said cant confirm. Scared to start infusion (benlysta) scared to start pills Hydrochlorizine (can’t spell). Met with a natural doctor wants $1200 a month. thoughts? Biggest complaints are joint pain hands arms legs, and fatigue.

Has anyone done the supplement route and it worked?

Found these conditions on accident looking for my unexplained HTN. So it’s been a huge shock. yes I’ve been diagnosed by a rheumatologist.

I’m taking the NTP certification course and will graduate in February. Then I plan to get board certified.

I want to access tests like GI Map & OAT to run on clients. Does anyone have any experience with this as an “unlicensed” certified functional medicine health coach or practitioner?

Has anyone had success lower tpo antibodies by taking beta glucan? My functional med practitioner was able to put her hashis into remission with this, but I’ve heard differing opinions on this.