DR. MITCH
Growing up, I was the child who constantly caught the flu bug as it flew around. In fact, I got to the point where I could almost always count on a cold every 4-5 weeks during the winter months. The question constantly arose as to why I was constantly getting sick. My mother had cut nearly all sugar from my diet, put me on a high quality multivitamin and fish oil, and it definitely helped… but not completely. As a young child I had been born via C-section, and lived on antibiotics for years on end for various flu bugs and chronic bronchitis. This was a perfect formula to have a very sick child. In college, I really became sick and tired of literally being sick and tired all the time. So I decided to take things a little bit more seriously. I cut out all refined sugars from my diet and went gluten-free. I was desperate at this point. I soon began seeing a functional medicine chiropractor/naturopath to start detoxing my body. I couldn’t imagine where I had gotten all of the toxins in the first place. From that point on, I made it over a year without a single cold.
I then went to chiropractic school. I have a personality that tends to be all or nothing and I wanted to be the very best doctor that I could possibly be. So I studied and worked as if my life depended on it. I was putting 90-100 hour weeks in attending class, clinic, and studying. At one point I had spent 17 straight weekends at the school studying. I had no time for family, friends, or much of a spiritual life. I had loss any concept of balance in my life. I had quite working out, and secluded myself to the library. In my third year of chiropractic school, I was rear-ended driving to school and received a minor concussion and whiplash, I was stressed out (as usual) over final exams and upcoming board exams, and then one day, while out to coffee with a friend, I got extremely lightheaded and nearly fainted. Little did I know that this was the start of my true health journey.
I didn’t think much of it. I thought I had just gotten sick or had a low blood sugar level. Then, the lightheaded spells continued. I found out that at the time I was living in an old and very moldy home. So within two weeks, I was completely moved out. I saw several DC’s, MD’s, and Naturopathic doctors who all had different opinions and yet no real solutions. My liver enzymes (which are a marker of liver function) were four times the upper limit of normal and they had no idea why. While on a family trip, I listened to a seminar on Lyme disease. I thought that my symptoms coincided with some of the symptoms of a tick-borne infection even though I hadn’t been bitten by a wood tick since I was a kid. Two weeks later, I was diagnosed with Lyme disease by the medical doctor. How had my health spiraled out of control so quickly? I was a young and supposable “healthy” young man, yet I struggled making it through a single day without losing consciousness. My symptoms continued and worsened. I started getting systemic aches, mild fevers, dizziness, headaches, nausea. I was at an all out war with whatever was stealing my health and joy from my life. I cut all grains, dairy, and sugar out of my diet. I was doing bone broth fasts, pulling heavy metals, killing mycotoxins, on candida-diet protocols, heavy duty herbal antibiotics, and was doing 3 infrared saunas per day. I had weeks where I could hardly get out of bed and if I even tried working out, it sent me into a weeklong spiral where I could barely function. This went on for nearly two years.
When is a hurricane formed? When the conditions are right. I was under chronic stress, living in a toxic environment, constantly pushing myself to be better, in a car accident, and had an underlying infection that I never even knew about. This created my perfect storm.
What did I do? Did I give up? It certainly seemed easier at times. No, I researched and studied harder than ever before. With each probable diagnosis, I worked to become an expert in the condition. By doing so, I read hundreds of peoples health stories and hundreds of research articles. I became compassionate and passion filled to bring healing into the lives of my patients. For me, it wasn’t one pill that cured me, it wasn’t one adjustment that cured me. There were layers built up that were causing me to be so sick. I needed to fix my health at a cellular level. Our cells are affected by the nerves that bring vital signals to them, blood vessels that bring nutrients and carry away toxins, and even our thought life has a tremendous impact on our bodies even on a cellular level. The layers of my “dis-ease” needed to be peeled off one by one. Even though I am so thankful for western medicine in certain situations, it had completely failed me. I am not your typical doctor. I have been through the trenches of not feeling well myself. I don’t give up. I am constantly researching and flying around the country learning from the best of the best. I don’t see the “typical” patient in my office and because of that I don’t always treat each patient in a “typical” fashion. No two people have ever been created the same. Treatment approaches need to be individualized for every single person.
If you are reading this as a current or future patient of Vital Roots I want you to know that you are in the right place. If you are determined and ready to take your health to the next level, it will absolutely get there. If you are reading this from across the country or across the world I want you to know that there is so much hope. Never give up. If you ever have any questions for me or my staff on our stories or about what we do here ant Vital Roots, please don’t hesitate to send us an email at vitalroots@vitalrootschiropractic.com.