My name is Matúš. Several years ago, my life took a very bad turn. In my early 20s, I became so sick that I ended up spending a long time bedbound, with my life coming to a halt - and with no end to my debilitating symptoms. All while getting no answers, no help and effectively being left to fend for myself by the conventional healthcare system, just like many others. I had to take matters in my own hands, get to the actual roots of the illness and find real solutions that have eventually enabled me to finally improve my health.
My education
I hold a Master's degree in the interdisciplinary field of biomedical physics. AÂ half of my studies took place on the faculty of medicine, taking all essential college level medical courses such as medical biology, physiology, anatomy, microbiology, immunology and others, which have provided me with a solid understanding of the workings of the human body and the principles of medicine (see the curriculum here and here). My diploma thesis focused on the application of polymeric nanoparticles modified by DNA aptamers for cancer therapy.
Biomedical physics - master's degree
University of Colorado Boulder - Gut check: Exploring your microbiome course
Endless hours of my own studies, reading diverse literature, following contemporary research and piecing together the connections.
Other education, training and experience:
- Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology of Slovak Academy of Sciences - practical training
- The exposome: cracking the science about what makes us sick - online course, Utrecht University
- Advances and new perspectives of music neuroscience and neurologic music therapy - workshop with Prof. Thaut
- Using Herbal Medicines to Modify the Microbiota - course by Dr. Jason Hawrelak
- The gut microbiome in detail - course by Dr. Elisabeth Philipps, PhD.
- Brain Fog, Chronic Fatigue, Long Covid, Memory Loss and Pain Breakthrough Summit hosted by Dr. Jenny Tufenkian
My story
A downward spiral
During my college studies, after several factors got together, including past antibiotics use and infections, stress, problematic diet and disease-promoting conditions/environment, my health began to decline significantly. Although in a retrospect, there were signs of something being wrong in more subtle ways a long time prior to that.
After struggling for some time and trying to keep functioning while in already a severely compromised health, at a certain point, my already bad condition got even worse. It happened while getting symptoms of a weird "flu". With symptoms of
- severe brain fog
- gut problems
- feeling wired but tired
- weak and sick overall
- debilitating muscle tension and pain
- fatigue
- insomnia and horrible sleep quality
- hay allergy
- depression/anxiety symptoms
- sensitivity to light and noise
and others,
I had become non-functional, unable to lead any normal life whatsoever. During the worst times, even simple activities like taking a shower or reading a text - that we take for granted - were terribly demanding, if not outright impossible. I was barely able to eat, with many foods causing worsening of symptoms, my sleep quality was terrible, walking was difficult, I was sensitive to noise and light. And the list goes on and on. I had to suspend my studies, as well as everything else, hobbies, any plans, life as such.
Despite numerous visits to various doctors, they were not able to provide me with any sensible explanation, correct diagnosis, and they were definitely not able to provide any real solution to my problems. What certainly didn't help the situation was the fact that I became so sick, foggy and achy that mere attempting to explain them to others coherently was difficult.
I have found out that the answer of an average physician in case they cannot put their finger on the problem is that it must be just in your head, be in fact caused by your depression or being a hypochondriac - just to avoid admitting that they have pretty much no clue. As naively as I expected that they could connect the dots of what's wrong with me and come up with a solution, I realized that they can't do that even if they wanted to. Simply because they are lacking the necessary knowledge and after all, they have to follow the official, contemporary guidelines and principles. They are just a part of a flawed standard medical system, one that is surely amazing in certain ways, but still lacking severely in others. One that has been useless to me and many others, of no real help and without any exaggeration, sometimes even outright dangerous.
Eventually it turned out that my problems could be classified under an umbrella term of ME/CFS (which can be likened to "long covid" and sadly it needs to be stated that people have been struggling with such problems even long before the infamous pandemic!) as well as POTS, IBS, SIBO, fibromyalgia, dysautonomia - among other fancy, poorly understood and sometimes also misleading labels - which at the end of the day didn't really lead to answers.
ME/CFS - So called myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome - the name is quite misleading, but that would be for another discussion...
POTS - Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome,
IBS - Irritable bowel syndrome, SIBO - Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth
Gut dysbiosis - A general term for an imbalance of gut microbes
An umbrella diagnosis - People with various symptoms (even various etiologies) fall under it. Essentially, it is the best that the modern medicine can do to categorize symptoms with its current knowledge, when other diagnoses are not fitting/after they are excluded.
The way back to health
That is, trying to find a solution while being sick as hell. I would liken the situation I found myself in to one in which you ask someone with a high fever and a broken leg to go to the city to buy some groceries and write you an scientific article about patophysiology of fever meanwhile. And if they object, you tell them that they just need to calm down and finally get their act together!
I tried endless different things and methods to get better, but for a long time with no or too minor success. Visits to various practitioners, healers, some more serious, some more dubious. Getting contradictory advice. My room filled with various supplements, herbs, teas, medications that could fill several cardboard boxes. A lot of experimentation on my own. I have been through all of that.
For the last couple of years, I have spent endless hours reading scientific or any relevant sources, browsing through internet forums, communicating with people who have something to say about healing, searching for any useful insights that can help people struggling with similar problems or ill health in general. All of that was done with the most pressing and unrelenting motivation - to finally feel better and bring myself back to life.
Ultimately, after a long and rough road, thanks to using methods aimed at healing my gut microbiome and fixing gut dysbiosis, notably including FMT among others, various supplements and dietary principles, I have gradually managed to improve my health dramatically, leaving behind the nightmarish times full of pain, truly insufferable symptoms and being bedridden. Still continuing with my healing, I aim to further improve my health and achieve the highest possible level of recovery.
I have found out first hand about the limits and culprits of the current mainstream medical practice and education. I have seen how the system teaches one to think in a certain strictly defined, monolitic manner and how limiting and misleading the paradigms that it impresses upon doctors may be. How real the disparity between the proclaimed, taught principles and the everyday practice of medical professionals can be. And also how doctors are trained to treat specific body parts, not see how the entire system works. And when one has symptoms that are outside of the box, they are just lost. I have taken a lesson from all of that.
The journey continues
I have created this page with intent to share my insights and to help other people who are going through health problems as in my case. The medical system hasn't really changed and it is truly disheartening and frustrating to hear about ever-repeating stories of people struggling with terrible health problems like mine, finding themselves in the situation as mine - who can in fact be often helped.
At the same time, however, it is encouraging me to embark on the journey of helping others - to become a person I needed but never had during my own difficult journey.
