Theo’s Story: Constipation, Anxiety, Insomnia, Fatigue, Itchy Rashes

Theo’s Story: Constipation, Anxiety, Insomnia, Fatigue, Itchy Rashes My name is Theo Skogsberg. I’m 70 years old. I live in Sequim, Washington, USA. I’m retired. I worked as an administrative assistant in various educational settings for over 40 years. I love cooking, gardening, painting, writing and spending time with my family.

I have had constipation problems for most of my life. As a child I could go for days without a bowel movement and had to have frequent enemas. When I was growing up I had numerous UTI’s. By the time I was in high school and college I was also having frequent yeast infections and low blood sugar episodes. At the time I didn’t realize the connection of these problems to my continuing gut problems. I was under conventional medical care and had several urinary and gynecological surgeries which didn’t help with the UTI’s or yeast infections. No one mentioned diet or water consumption. I was tired and anxious most of the time. Most of the time growing up I had weight problems and took off about 30 pounds before I started college. I starved myself using the latest fad diet. I had a full-blown eating disorder by the time I was in my 20’s, alternating between starving myself and binging and purging.

When I wanted to get pregnant in my 30’s I knew I needed to get healthy. I took nutrition classes, completely changed my diet and had successful therapy for my eating disorder. I don’t remember anything mentioned about gut issues back then and I figured I would just have to live with my “slow” bowels. I considered it a good week if I could have a bm every other day. I was having multiple cold sore breakouts almost every week. I sensed something was still not right in spite of everything I was doing. I was able to get pregnant and had two sons. I developed hemorrhoids after the birth of my first son. These were very painful with my hard stools. I finally sensed real thirst for the first time in my life when I was nursing my older son and discovered that drinking more water could help my bowels move.

In my 40’s I thought I had my bowels “under control.” I increased my water intake to almost a gallon a day and ate mostly raw fruits and vegetables. My bowels continued to be sluggish. My pattern was to wait to go to the bathroom until things felt very urgent because I knew I couldn’t strain with my hemorrhoids and I didn’t like to sit on the toilet for long periods of time. Each morning when I had to commute to work I awoke with a burning question: Will I have a bowel movement today? Every once in a while I would have a week of stomach upset and diarrhea. I welcomed those weeks. I ate very little and imagined that my body was cleansing itself.

In my 50’s more serious health problems started to develop, and I had put on ten pounds that would not come off. I was tired and had trouble sleeping. I was anxious, especially in the evenings. I tested sensitive to several foods and completely removed the worst offenders from my diet–dairy, eggs and cane sugar. I immediately lost 10 pounds. I tried a couple colonics, but they didn’t seem to help my gut situation. My naturopath was concerned about my high inflammation markers. Later I was also diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and hypothyroidism. The doctor placed me on the caveman diet and prescribed nystatin, fungizone and diflucan for yeast overgrowth.

I lost 25 pounds, a lot of my hair fell out and my energy level plummeted. I was discouraged because I didn’t feel well in spite of my very restrictive diet. I started seeing an herbalist in addition to my naturopath. I used a glucometer each day to monitor my blood sugar in response to what I was eating. I started having itchy rashes all over my body. My beautiful body gave me a signal I couldn’t ignore - shingles down my face and into my eye - and I retired from my job in 2011.

My blood sugar issues improved after I retired but the gut problems, rashes, fatigue, sleeping problems and anxiety continued. I never discussed my bowel problems with health care providers because I thought I had them under control. When I was 64, tests revealed that I had heavy metals toxicity and plaque in my arteries. My naturopath prescribed IV chelations which I did for almost five years. The chelations were very hard on my body. They stripped a lot of the minerals from my body–healthy and not–and I took supplements prescribed by the naturopath and my herbalist to replace the good ones. I was discouraged because I was eating a very restrictive diet and taking so many supplements and I felt no better. I had very bad gas and bloating and itched constantly.

Enter Russell’s teachings. I felt desperate. I knew my body was not absorbing the nutrition from my organic diet. I was taking too many supplements that I was not digesting properly. I had decided to quit the chelations which I knew were weakening me even more. Russell had helped my sons with gut problems so I started with Russell’s book. His transparency about his own healing really resonated with me. I was intrigued by his list of complementary habits and insulting habits. I liked the way he asked me to be mindful of everything I do, a practice that is being overlooked in our fast-paced world. I was not chewing my food and at times I ate standing up or in the car. I was not connecting to my food at all.

My husband died suddenly in December, 2020, and I put off consulting with Russell. I worked on my own and incorporated as many of the complementary habits as I could in the first half of 2021 and tried to eliminate my insulting habits. I discovered that I was drinking too much water. I really believe Russell’s program helped me survive one of the most stressful times of my life–preparing my property to sell and move to another town while navigating overwhelming grief.

Enter Russell. I started consulting with him in August, 2021. I sensed from Day 1 that Russell really cared about me. I remember early on when I started the program that Russell was going out of town. He went out of his way to make sure that I knew how to contact him if I needed him for any reason. In the first few days of my first cleanse I remember emailing him with concerns. He called that same day and reassured me. I had never worked with anyone like him before.

Working with Russell has been like taking a nutrition/health master class with a deeply caring mentor. He has reinforced numerous times that my body is striving to heal herself every moment of every day. He encouraged me as I built my confidence in my body’s wisdom. For me one of the biggest challenges was learning to trust my body. I had to let go of control and trust my body’s signals about bowel movements and food choices. I chose to take a deep dive into my healing as I realized the relationship of my emotions to my gut health. I believe healing my gut is helping me heal a lot of my childhood trauma, which has been life-changing for me.

Another challenge has been learning to chew my food and stop when I’m full. When I get gas now I can usually trace it back to eating too much or too fast and not chewing my food. Learning to not eat late at night has been challenging but rewarding for me at the same time. When I eat early in the evening I can feel my body slowing down after that and getting ready to rest at night. At one point a test revealed that I had elevated cortisol in the evening. That is no longer true. I’m sleeping better and awakening with more energy. I have less anxiety. For so many years because of my low blood sugar I was eating almost constantly. I no longer suffer from blood sugar issues.

I went off all previous supplements when I started working with Russell. Now I only take Armour thyroid, the Essentials, ASEA, a probiotic and blue green algae. Per my doctor I’ve added Vitamin D3 back in. After testing, my doctor has reduced the amount of my thyroid medication because she says I’m probably absorbing it better under Russell’s program. She says my inflammation markers are way down. At one point my oral hygienist told me that I had periodontal disease and moved my cleaning schedule to every four months. After working with Russell, the dentist has moved my cleanings back to twice a year. I have had one small cold sore breakout this past year.

My itching–the last symptom to arise–has taken the longest to improve. I noticed a definite improvement this spring after I did the kidney/bladder cleanse and liver/gall bladder cleanse. I was really afraid of these cleanses because in the past one practitioner said my body probably couldn’t withstand a cleanse and she was probably right…at that time. Russell assured me that the cleanses were gentle and he was right. I don’t miss the itching.

For the last few months I’ve added in more foods, even yogurt and a few eggs occasionally. I’ve taken a couple trips and ate food that I was not able to eat in the past. However, my body seems to crave the soaked whole grains and steamed vegetables if I haven’t had them for a while. They feel so nourishing to me. Now I usually eat those with a small amount of meat or vegetable protein for a couple meals a day and branch out for the other meal. So far so good. I’m having normal bowel movements at least once and sometimes twice a day. I plan to do the cleanses at least yearly and stay in touch with Russell.

I’m very grateful to Megan Moore, Russell’s wife and Director of Client Services. She took care of setting up my accounts and ordering all my supplements early on. She really helped me out at the beginning when I was absorbed in learning the program. She has always been gracious, professional and knowledgeable. Recently she met with me on zoom to show me how to order my own supplements. I used to talk to Russell weekly and he always answered my long list of questions very patiently. Now I just email him occasionally with random questions. He has promised to be with me for my lifetime. Russell is a true healer in every sense of the word. I recommend his program without reservation. In fact, I’ve recommended it to many people and bought his book for several. His mentoring is priceless. If you’re on the fence about calling Russell, I urge you to do so right away. I know Russell can help you. He helped me change my life.

Theo Skogsberg (age 70)
Sequim, Washington
November, 2022