Kelly was 24 years old when she signed up for Quantify, after struggling for years with debilitating fatigue that had developed seemingly out of nowhere.
Her primary care doctor had ordered a complete blood count (CBC), comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP), and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) to investigate what was going on, but when her test results came back normal, he didn’t have any ideas, other than the possibility that Kelly was “just stressed.”
What’s more, when Kelly asked if her doctor could order more tests, she was basically shown the door, with the implication being that he didn’t know what else to order beyond a basic evaluation, or that maybe the system he was in prevented him from conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the health of his patients.
Whatever the case, Kelly recognized that she probably wasn’t going to get anywhere with conventional medicine, and that she would need to look elsewhere for answers.
In her first appointment at Quantify, Kelly’s health coach recommended a Lyme disease test and Epstein-Barr virus test, to test for Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, and Epstein-Barr virus, the virus that causes mononucleosis.
Test results
Her first time testing for chronic infections, Kelly’s Lyme disease test was negative, indicating she didn’t have Lyme disease, the notoriously underdiagnosed tick-borne infection.
Kelly’s Epstein-Barr virus test, however, showed significantly elevated IgM and IgG antibodies, indicating reactivated Epstein-Barr virus, which can cause fatigue, joint pain, brain fog, depression, anxiety, and innumerable other chronic symptoms.
A surprisingly common infection—around 90% of the global population are infected with the virus—Kelly had likely contracted Epstein-Barr virus in her teens, and her immune system had effectively kept the virus under control until something, some stressful event, caused it to reactivate.
Her fatigue had started years later, in college, where she had pushed herself to keep pace with the ever-increasing demands of her coursework with frequent all-nighters in the library and a nearly constant supply of caffeine, so the extreme physical and mental stress Kelly had been under was the likely culprit.
Recovery
Shocked that a virus was causing her fatigue, but also thrilled to finally get answers, Kelly recalled that she had contracted mono when she was 15, and that she had been bed-bound for weeks with fatigue, fever, and sore throat, so it made sense that the same virus could reactivate if her immune function faltered.
Following her health coach’s recommendations closely—her recovery strategy having advanced significantly since her last run-in with the virus—Kelly eliminated processed foods, sugar, grains, and dairy from her diet, increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, took certain supplements, such as NAC, lysine, and reishi, and started getting to bed on a consistent schedule.
Within a few months, Kelly started feeling more rested in the morning, less reliant on coffee, and better able to keep up with the demands of her job.
A year later, her fatigue had completely resolved, and she reported feeling like she had gotten her life back, now equipped with the right diet, supplements, and lifestyle to ensure the virus wouldn’t reactivate again.