Amir works for a large technology company in Silicon Valley and came to me for help to resolve his chronic inflammation, bloating, allergy and food sensitivity issues:

I couldn't eat a piece of food without feeling sluggish afterwards right away, to the point where it would really interfere heavily with my job and the work that I was doing. I have to perform at work. It's quite challenging not to be able to think clearly throughout the day. It was to the point where I was really dreading foods.

The Paleo diet has been extremely helpful, and AIP even better:

The last two months I've been very strict on my diet, I mean, very, very clean living, no booze, no nothing. I think that also makes a big difference. For the past two months, I would say I've been doing exceptionally well.

Diet and lifestyle hacks are always helpful, but if you don't get the brochure experience, then it's time to do some testing to figure out why. In Amir's case, we found low cortisol (a.k.a adrenal fatigue) and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). And now:

On good days, I feel outstanding. I see it in my physical performance and when I look in the mirror too. A lot of the drawbacks that I had before are pretty much gone. I feel really energetic. I picked up lots of new hobbies, actually, which is an indicator of feeling like you have more energy to tend to the things that you want to do. I think that was the goal overall, just making sure that I can do the things again that I like.

On the left, Amir's organic acids result from July 2014, on the right, the April 2015 retest. Each row describes an abnormality; fewer is better.