In this interview, Dr. Priti Nanda Sibal speaks with Vijay, a long‑time IBS sufferer who also struggled with anxiety, hypertension, and severe diarrhea episodes. Vijay discovered Dr. Sibal’s program via a Facebook webinar and enrolled after being drawn to the claim that IBS is a physiological gut disorder rather than merely psychosomatic. He recounts his pre‑treatment state: chronic panic about leaving the house, reliance on psychiatric medication, high blood‑pressure drugs, and repeated ineffective allopathic treatments. Dr. Sibal’s holistic protocol combined allopathic prescriptions, Ayurvedic remedies, targeted supplements (including a wormwood complex), an elimination diet, and a focus on liver and kidney health. A pivotal moment was the discovery of elevated lead levels (≈140 µg/dL) and subsequent oral chelation, which halved the lead burden and coincided with marked IBS improvement. Over months, Vijay discontinued anti‑anxiety medication, reduced blood‑pressure medication, and was able to resume normal activities and even eat wheat without symptoms. He emphasizes that IBS can be cured when underlying physiological factors—microbial imbalance, heavy metals, liver function—are addressed. Dr. Sibal reinforces the importance of treating liver and kidney first, using elimination diets, and listening to one’s body regarding foods like wheat. The conversation ends with Vijay’s encouragement to other IBS sufferers that the condition is treatable beyond psychosomatic explanations.
Chapters
Hi, good morning Vijay, and wish you a very Merry Christmas.
Morning, ma'am, and happy Christmas to you as well.
Thank you, and thanks for this beautiful Christmas gift you've given me.
Yeah, and you too for, for the gift.
Thank you. So can you share your experience when you joined me? How did you join, and then how, you know, how did we progress? What have you been—
your learnings Yeah, uh, so I found you, I think, on Facebook, uh, to start with, and I attended your initial webinar or that seminar that you conducted. Uh, then I enrolled myself after— basically, I like the philosophy and the methods that you are handling. It's not just about gut, and the main point you told about IBS not being a psychological issue and it's more like a real gut issue, that what kind of captured my attention because all the while I was thinking it's kind of psychological. But when I heard that, that gave me hope that, you know, there is something wrong with my gut, that it can be fixed. So that's what pulled me towards the program and I enrolled in it. And then the first consult that we had, you also asked about other health issues and parameters, and then you suggested that I enroll into a wider one-to-one program which takes care of not just the gut, overall health. Uh, because by the time I was in a bad shape, uh, so in February '21, I had a severe diarrhea attack. Uh, I think some food poisoning happened in February, and it almost took a week to come out of that. But I thought I came out of it. It looks like it— I did not, and something severe had happened. So I was not able to go out at all from the house. So whenever I go out, it used to give severe panic kind of, uh, thing. So I almost stopped going out, trying to avoid going out Um, I took a lot of probiotics and kind of medicines in between, uh, consulted many doctors. Nobody was actually paying attention to what I'm saying, what the real problem is. They just prescribe something for 2 weeks and then things would again be back to where it was. And then it went to such an extent that, uh, I had to consult a psychiatrist to see if there's any psychological issue that's happening. Is it just fear that's kind of causing this problem? And he put me also on medication for about 3 to 6 months almost. And actually, that didn't help. It made my mind more numb. I was like all the time sleepy, and, you know, things didn't improve. And he would just say, go out, you know, it's just fear. But it's not just going out, it's not just fear. Fear is there, but something is not good with the body. So that's the situation I was in. And, um, so after I joined the program with you, Uh, obviously explained a whole lot of things about the thing and the nutrition test.
If I remember, when you had joined, one was you, you were on psychiatric medicine. Second was you were not going out of your house at all. You were really scared. Even if, you know, you had to go for 10 minutes, it was a big problem for you.
Yeah.
So I think your blood pressure was high, if I remember it right.
Yeah, blood pressure was, uh, was under control with medication.
Yes, and you were on medications for blood pressure. Since how long you were on medication for blood pressure?
Blood pressure was very long time, and I had changed my lifestyle in 2020 during COVID time, uh, so I reduced my weight and everything. So there my BP medication also came down, uh, much lower to like 1/4 of what you used to take.
Right, because when you joined my program, you were on a small dose of BP medicine. Yeah, right.
So yeah, even to get out of the house for 10 minutes, I can't even step out of the door, still immediately fear used to come. So from there, if I compare now, last, especially last 3-4 months, and specifically last 2 months, like I am regularly going out, uh, but of course there's little bit of that, uh, there that, okay, I'm actually having the problem, but, but I'm able to go out. Just use the toilet once before going out, but I'm able to go out and manage the life mostly. So I think I'm on the right path. I'm almost there.
And can you elaborate a little about how we work together? And because major part you did, I only held your hand on the way so that you know we are on the right track. So how did we move?
Yeah, I think initial days there were more consults, more one-on-one consults, and we went quite deep into all the issues, including the thought, thought process, and not just attend to the body but also to the mind. Like, that was one of the other aspects that I kind of attracted me because I also keep reading a lot of stuff and watching things on mind-body connection and things like that. So there is— it's like a— I think it's both directions. The body is affecting the mind and mind is affecting the body. Uh, so the holistic, uh, medication and all the suggestions you gave, uh, really kind of helped me. Especially it's a combination of allopathic plus Ayurvedic plus, uh, supplements. So it's like a wholesome thing. It's not just one modality that we following, just allopathic drugs. But where it was necessary, you gave allopathy. Where it's not necessary, you kind of gave me just supplements or Ayurvedic. Uh, we even did Forgot the name of that liquid that we used to take. That also helped me a lot. The Now Foods, we got it from the US.
Wormwood complex.
Wormwood complex, yeah. Yes. Yeah, so I like this whole basically attacking the problem from all sides than just going in one direction and thinking this is the only problem, right?
So I also remember, Vijay, that during one point We were stuck in IBS and we had, you know, we were 70% better but we were stuck. And at the time I told you let's do heavy metals and your lead came to 140 and we wanted around 10-20, right? Right. And then we did oral chelation and it came to 70 in 2 months and then further dropped down and other heavy metals also improved. Correct, right?
That was a real shocker. I didn't— I never realized that, uh, heavy metals had a significant impact, and I was so bad, uh, in lead especially.
Exactly. So you had hypertension for so many years because of this. And imagine if we could have looked at heavy metal that time, because every hypertensive heavy metal is playing a role behind. Every IPS heavy metal is there, one of the reasons for that.
So I think that also played a significant role in that case, because once that fell to half or less than half, uh, symptoms improved drastically on IBS side also, right?
Exactly. Because I, for my knowledge, I know that, um, I was like thinking, where are we stuck, where are we stuck? And suddenly I felt, oh, heavy metals we've not done. And you never know. And when your heavy metals came, I said, oh, now I know where we were stuck and we will be able to come out. So Vijay, are you on any anti-anxiety pills right now, or any anti-hypertensive, anything like that from the allopathy point of view?
Uh, anti-anxiety we stopped completely, uh, the first 3-4 months itself. I mean, we progressively stopped and completely halted. Uh, the blood pressure is the same, minimal medication that I'm taking, but I can revisit that. I have to visit my, uh, cardiologist to see to go without medication for a week or something. They may suggest a much lower dose and then probably get me off of it.
Yes, because now I think in next 1 month your goal has to be get your BP right, and I will work with you on that, and we will make sure that your BP medicines also go off. Because when the body is working fine, you know, it's extremely nice to see how every disease just flies out, out of the body. Right. Any message you would want to give to other people who are suffering from IBS? Because I see a lot of tech guys today suffering from IBS, and a lot of successful people, somehow they have irritable bowel syndrome. But just because they know, or they've been told that it is psychosomatic, they keep it to themselves, and they keep suffering and changing their lifestyle. you know, and living in the minimalistic lifestyle. So any message you want to give to them from your journey?
Yeah, I think the biggest one is that it can be cured. Uh, generally we hear it cannot be cured. Like you said, it's a more psychological issue. And even when you read on YouTube, lot of messages say it's psychosomatic and, uh, you have to just live with it for life. But obviously not. Uh, so there is a physiological phenomenon to it, and there is a gut issue. There is either the bacterial or fungal. Any of these issues could trigger that, plus like heavy metals like you said, and liver function. Like you focus a lot on liver for me because that also had an issue. So any of the organs can be triggering this. So I think it's good that—
very interesting video you pointed out. I remember we did a juice fast with you and all your symptoms came back. Yes, right. And I then told you that biofilms have burst, and if they could burst with juice fasting, imagine any change in life, they would have come out.
Mhm.
No. So yes, liver function I have seen is extremely important to have a good gut health because— and now what I've started doing is before even I start working on the gut, first one month I work only on liver and kidney. Because only when they are right, your gut can be healed or can be balanced or can be regenerated. Yeah, great. Thank you, Vijay. Anything else you want to mention? Anything which you think you've missed or anything you think you did which really worked wonders for you?
No, I, I just followed what you said. I think almost like I would say 95%, maybe 5% here and there I would have missed some things. Uh, some instruction because there's so many of them and I kind of tend to miss a few things. And, uh, especially elimination diet, I was very strictly following, um, for the first 6 months or so. Afterward, I took little liberty here and there just to see how the body reacts, more than anything else. Not to, uh, not to not follow your instruction, but just to see how the body will work if I took something which is not, uh, like wheat or something. Uh, but elimination diet also helped a lot.
And what is your observation on now when you eat wheat? Lot of people think we will never be able to eat wheat in life. So what do you have to say on that?
No, I'm enjoying now. I'm actually— my gut is feeling better when I eat, uh, naan or things like that. So great.
So that—
it is very peaceful. I'm not feeling any sensation at all like how used to feel before.
Perfect. I'm so happy to hear this because This year in the Indian Association of Functional Medicine conference, my topic was should everybody avoid wheat, right? And I agree with you, not necessary that you avoid wheat all the time. Yes, off and on you can take it if it suits with your gut, but listen to your body is very important, right? Yeah, perfect. Thank you, Vijay. Thank you very much.
