How Long Will it Take Me to Heal from an Illness?

Happy September, the fall is almost here, Yay! I'm also happy this week, because I received my follow-up viome gut and cell health test results, and finally, after a year and three months of working on my health, I got results that show my gut and cells are in the normal range (or average). It also showed that my biological age is 45 

years old - this age is younger than my chronological age (my first test showed the opposite; I was aging faster on the inside than my actual age).

I share this with you because it is a good reminder that it takes time to heal our bodies, especially if you have a chronic condition. And is super important to be consistent in whatever treatment plan you embark on. Let me tell you that I spent the last 15 months taking the right herbs, exercising correctly, and eating right. I can honestly say that I was consistent and may have missed a day here and there, but overall, I stayed on track and did not regress. At times it was hard, but I kept reminding myself my health was the most important thing. After all, who can I help if I'm sick? and once you regress is harder to get back on track. Also, the more your health deteriorates is going to be more difficult and take more time to recover. So it is really not worth stopping doing what you are doing.

I would also like to remind you that sometimes while you heal, you may experience a healing crisis. A healing crisis is a period when you can develop negative symptoms like headache, diarrhea, rashes, cold/flu symptoms, and tiredness. This should be temporary. Usually, it clears within a week, but for some people, it could take weeks. This does not mean you need to suffer; in fact, work with your natural health care provider to adjust the doses of what you are taking or your health plan, to minimize these symptoms. This is not a no-pain, no-gain situation; we can slow down the process without impacting your recovery. One note worth mentioning is feeling tired; with so many people suffering from a form of Adrenal fatigue these days, feeling tired while healing may be a sign that your body is asking you to slow down and rest or that you are not sleeping enough hours during the night. So pay attention to this symptom and don't ignore it.

With that said, how long does it take to heal? The answer is until you are healthy again. It is going to take as long as it needs to. Please note that it took years to get to where you are; therefore, even if you feel better, it might take years to recover fully. However, if you need a guideline, I have seen with my clients that treatment usually takes between three and six months, assuming they follow their healing program daily. However, people with chronic conditions may take between eighteen and twenty-four months to fully recover.

Even in my case, I did not have a chronic illness, and I still had to work on my health for over a year! I was just suffering from side effects of COVID vaccine. The vaccine impacted my endocrine system, metabolism and gut. It took time to heal because I had to work on each layer at a time. I first clear hormone imbalance, thyroid and adrenal issues, while also working on my metabolism. That took almost a year! then half way through the process, I discovered my gut was also impacted and I had to work on that as well. That is how the healing process goes. Sometimes you work discovered more things to work on, but this does not mean your program is failing, it means you healed part of it and is allowing you to see other things that were wrong and you didn't see before and now you need to adjust your program. 

My experience seeing clients and friends is that most people (not everyone) give up on their health strategy within a few weeks of starting. Then they say, "I tried everything, and nothing works for me." While is true that not everything works for everyone and we do need to try different things, we also need to make sure we not stopping a program too soon because "life gets in the way" or because "taking too long." And when life does get in the way, because we are human and it will happen to all of us, then go back to your program, don't start a new one. I will give any program at least 3 months before stopping it (unless is not working for you, of course, you should never do anything that harms you).

Keeping an eye on your progress is key to knowing if the program is working; take notes on how you felt before you started and how you are progressing every week; for example, make a list of all your symptoms before you start the program, and rate them on a scale from 1 to 10. then every week, rate the symptom. That is the only way you can see if you are improving. Because in 3 or 6 months, you may not be completely healed, but you should see some improvement. Note that you may not see improvement each week; some weeks, you may go backward (because of something happening in your life), so look more for a monthly trend.

Lastly, I will say that the best healing programs are the ones that are holistic and include diet, supplements, herbs, exercise, and stress management. Anything else will produce partial results, and don't get me wrong sometimes partial results are all you need, but getting to the root of the problem is the long-term solution, and this will always require addressing the problem holistically.

I hope this helps; remember, if you have any questions feel free to email me at Toni@drToniCamacho.com and get my book Eat Well, Move Well, Think Well, Age Well if you like to learn more about the protocol I followed to get healthy. Also, if you are curious about the state of your health, check the viome health home test. I believe they are on sale this holiday weekend, and you can also get an additional 20% discount if you use my coupon code DRTONI.

Happy Labor day
Toni