Naturopaths in Atlanta, GA

Hi Atlanta neighbors! I see Dr. Zach Cohen from here: http://atlantaholisticmedicine.com He sent me to 23 andme.com and we will be going over my results whenever they come in. He's already given me a regimen based on the expensive Nutreval test that shows I'm not processing b vitamins. It is pricey (first consult was 350) and 150 each visit after. I'm using HSA to pay for everything except 23 andme.com

Thought about 23 andme.com?

We see Dr. Susan Tanner at Southern Environmental Medicine. She's in Atlanta, located in Buckhead.

She tested our daughter for MTHFR and OAT and used OAT and symptoms as a guide. She doesn't appear to focus on SNPs (so far) but then not all SNPs express. She directed me to read Lynch, Yasko and Walsh, which seems as sound as sources ever get, and those sources generally recommend treating the symptoms. She know we are not flush financially, so whether she would do more testing for someone else I can't say. I've found her recommendations to be sound, and I don't want to interfere with her treatment plan, but I do have a couple of chiros in town I draw on for additional advice. Mia Mundale and Karen Tedeschi are not well versed in MTHFR, buy they have been a good guide to tracking down sensitivities to foods and testing which supplements in which dosages are suitable.

Michael Forrester is awesome and he's in the guild. Www.anaturalpath.com. Or org. He's also a tremendous energy healer.

Kris Lawler. She lives in my building.

Michael Forester (Rishi) was my Reiki teacher and is very good.

Also, dr Nita Desai is an Ayurvedic dr and an md, but she's in boulder co, BUT she said that she has numerous patients that she's helped and that she's never met. I've only seen her in person once when visiting my sister out there and then I've had phone follow ups since then

Paying upfront is definitely not normal practice. I’ve been seeing various naturopaths my whole life and I always pay at the end of a session. I’m in Canada but I know in the US naturopaths charge a lot more and there’s a lot more scammers there. I normally pay between $130-$180. SIBO is a comdition that is 1000% treatable on your own. Naturopaths or Gastroenterologists are good to help with testing but all the information you need to know is online and it’s very straight forward. I cured my SIBO in 1.5 years and then ended up teaching my naturopath about things she didn’t know so I’d be cautious about throwing out thousands of dollars.

Also curious about the answer.

Following. I would maybe pay up front to Mark Pimentel! But seriously, unless she has a community of raving fans you can talk to I would not do it. But I might if: 1. I could afford to lose the money, and 2. I had already tried everything in this subreddit and nothing helped and 3. I could not convince my PCP to prescribe a prokinetics (I'm working on this now). Anyways, please post if you learn anything one way or the other.

I don’t know anyone on GA but I would not pay upfront like that. Something is off with this naturopath. You should be able to pay by appointment

Follow some of the SIBO naturopaths on instagram (or even if you dont have insta just look at them without an account, or make an account to keep up with them)- alot of them occasionally will make their videos "free for 24 hours" or something... one of them just did this yesterday (sibo\_sos)... she interviews Dr.Allison Siebecker (probably one of the top SIBO naturopaths and goes through the whole treatment plan in her video)... I watched them all yesterday, so to try to help you I will summarize what I learned here, since I know it sucks to have finances be a barrier to treatment... Naturopaths are people too and are trying to run a business and make a living while trying to help people, but medical costs should be affordable and in this country in medical costs in general are just out of control IMO Testing: to tell if you have SIBO or not you can do a breath test or gastric aspirate (invasive, only a few places do this)... most traditional GI docs will not do either one... neither test is 100% accurate (see The duodenal microbiome is altered in small intestinal bacterial overgrowth” by Leite et al (2020)- Dr is from Cedar- Sinai in Cali… the test was determined to only be 85% specific for SIBO and the sensitivity was about 57%… meaning it will not diagnose all cases) but can be helpful in getting started. If you find a GI doc that specializes in SIBO (like I have) you may be able to do the breath test in office and have insurance pay for it. Otherwise you can do the breath test either at home (recommended to order a lactulose breath test, not the glucose one) or at the naturopaths office. The hope is that you can determine if you have hydrogen dominant, methane dominant, or hydrogen sulfide dominant bacteria. If you do not have any of this bacteria- there is still a chance it could be a fungal/candida overgrowth (SIFO). It can also be that you have both SIBO and SIFO. Treatment: after testing you will need to treat your SIBO or SIFO... this is done either by antibiotics or herbal antibiotic/antifungals (with the elemental diet being the last option) plus or minus some extras to help them work better... sometimes the herbals work better and sometimes the traditional meds work better, but both have been proven effective. It is also IIMPORTANT to note, that sometimes you will need to repeat the treatment (with a 2 weeks break in between), as sometimes the first treatment doesn't completely get everything. You may also want to alternate different treatment strategies to target different bacteria, and prevent resistance. Traditional meds: \- If hydrogen dominant: rifaximin 550 mg 550 mg TID(three times a day) for 14 to 21 days. Rifaximin is thought of as a very safe antibiotic as it is not absorbed into the body it just stays in the intestines. \- If methane dominant/mixed/or constipation: do rifaximin as listed above and then add either: Neomycin 500mg BID (twice a day) for 14 to 21 days OR Metronidazole 250 mg TID for 14 to 21 days. Neomycin is also thought to be pretty safe when taken in pill form because it also just stays in the intestines supposedly - although when I took Neomycin I did get ringing in my ears (tinnitus) this is supposedly really rare however, and it didn't last long term. \- if you have SIFO/candida could also consider adding fluconazole (not nystatin as it is unknown if it will really make it all the way into the intestine, or degrade before getting there) 21 days dosing is normally required if you have more issues with gas/distention/bloating If getting meds from out of the country (Canada, Mexico)- make sure you are getting from good sources. Insurance will a lot of times cover Rifaximin for IBS-D. There is a study out there that showed Rifaximin worked better if you took it with Partially hydrolyzed guar gum (Clinical trial: the combination of rifaximin with partially hydrolysed guar gum is more effective than rifaximin alone in eradicating small intestinal bacterial overgrowth” from Funari et al (2010) (Italian research team)… found that Rifaximin was only 62% effective in getting rid of SIBO when by taken alone-but when patients took rifaximin with PHGG 5g/day it had an 87% success rate).. some people say dont take PHGG cause it will feed the bad bacteria- but others think that the bacteria need to be happy and replicating in order to be best destroyed by the antibiotic... there have been success with both methods, so its a little bit of trial and error Herbal meds: Most popular are either: \- Candibactin AR AND BR (take 2 of each, twice a day) \- FC-Cidal and Dysbiocide (take 2 of each, twice a day) \- things to add to the herbals: if you suspect fungal as well or have constipation or have methane - would add ALLICIN (1350-2700 mg/day), can also consider adding Atrantil (works for some people really well) may also need to add more berberine for hydrogen dominant ( so that it is closer to 3000 to 5000 mg a day dose) if you do not want to take the combo herbals... can "make your own": Berberine herbs (5000mg/day- split into 3 doses), Neem (900-1800mg/day- split into 3 doses), Oregano EMULSIFIED (if not emulsified will burn... 200mg/day- split into 3 doses) Diet: There are alot of different schools of thought on diet from the Specific Carb Diet (Dr. Seibecker), to the Cedars Sinai Diet (Dr. Pimental), to the Low FODMAP diet... basically you have to figure out what works for you and your lifestyle and how much symptom management you want, as everyone is different. Don't get too caught up in this- the different diets have all been successful it is more of just finding out what works for you. Start a food diary, and log your symptoms and try to follow the patterns- then do what works best for you. The basic concept however is that the bacteria like to eat fermentable carbs, and when you eat fermentable carbs this allows the bacteria to eat and multiply and produce more gas which equals more symptoms. Also if you have yeast/fungus overgrowth- yeast and fungus love sugar, so any type of sugar will cause them to increase in number as well. So the less fermentable carbs and the less sugar the better... I am personally doing the BiPhasic diet with some modifications and like it a lot as it really controls my symptoms but it is not for everyone. You can see more info about all this on Dr. Seibecker's website under diet. Also once you finish the SIBO antibiotic treatment, the diet will be critical for keeping your progress on tract- you want to maintain a lower carb/sugar diet (does not have to be super restrictive) for at least 3-6 months after treatment, to make sure you do not start feeding the bad bacteria again- especially if your "root cause" for your SIBO has not been 100% fixed. If your insurance will cover a dietician- I would highly recommend finding a dietician who has a lot of IBS experience and working through this with them- as this can be very overwhelming, and hard to figure out. As everyone reacts differently to food- and none of the "lists of safe foods" online are 100% true for everyone. You also do not want to have a nutritional defficency, for this reason a multivitamin could be recommended. You also want to make sure you are reintroducing foods at the appropriate time and not staying on a super restrictive diet long term- as staying on a super restrictive diet can also negatively impact your microbiome. I would also add that a lot of people have found that taking enzymes before meals can help tremendously with digestion, and help you tolerate more foods. I also feel that personally FD guard can be very helpful to take before a meal, especially if I am already feeling bloated. Prokinetics: alot of people with SIBO have a motility issue, you can have a GI doc order a test to determine this. It is highly recommended that you use a pro kinetic after the antibiotics to keep all the changes in the microbiome that the antibiotics have made, and not let all the bad bacteria to just build up again. This will help prevent relapse. There are prescription prokinetics and also natural prokinetics that do not need an rx ie Iberogast ( can do 60 drops in a small glass of water before bed). I'm kinda running out of steam writing this... so I'm going to stop here, but the VERY IMPORTANT last step is to find out why you got SIBO/SIFO in the first place so you can prevent a relapse... wether it be stress/brain-gut connection, medication, intestinal blockages/adhesions/surgery, motility issues... if these are not addressed, there is a high chance that the SIBO may come back This is Dr.Seibecker's website for more details: [https://www.siboinfo.com](https://www.siboinfo.com) Hopefully this helps :) Best wishes and blessings! ^(All information provided is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is not medical advice nor is it intended to replace medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose, prescribe, or treat any disease, condition, illness, or injury. Before beginning any medication or diet/lifestyle program, modifying your medications or diet/lifestyle, or making changes to the medications/diet/lifestyle of a child in your care, including following the medical/ nutrition information available in this message, you should seek advice from your licensed health professional.)

Atlanta Functional Medicine has always helped me!

Wow I’m trying to find a naturopath to and I found Kelly but that was so much money up front in my opinion too

I found a couple of places, but it looks like neither takes insurance: [https://2 umedical.com/team-3/](https://2 umedical.com/team-3/) [https://www.buckheadfunctionalmedicine.com/](https://www.buckheadfunctionalmedicine.com/)

I LOVE my holistic doc. I've been going to him for 5+ years. Great Christian family. Totally helped me heal from my autoimmune. Chris Ambrozio (678) 445-2746

Dr Taz Bahtia - she is in amazing. She figured out Nicole!!!

Dr. Mary Ann Valdecanas with Laureate Medical. Her specialty is internal medicine. She is great!! Offices at Northside Alpharetta, St. Joseph's, etc. Dr. 'V' takes the time to really listen!!

Dr Ralph Lee was my naturopath and cured my colitis. He was by Kennestone and moved to Ellijay. For gastric issues typically he recommended the candida diet and a rx of nystatin (live). He did a immunolabs test that was around $800 which tells you of other food sensitivities so you know additional foods to avoid but I'd go Gung Ho on the candida diet and the first month will sick, you very well may feel worse before you feel better, but after about a month the cravings go away and the diet becomes easier, plus you start noticing the difference in your gut. You can not chat even a little bit or you're back to square 1 on the month. He had some local references when he first moved so you could possibly look him up and call him for a local reference.