E288: Why Her Panic Attacks Had Nothing to Do With Her Brain – Clinical Thinking #2

She was convinced it was her thyroid. After years of panic attacks, chronic anxiety, and a body that felt like it was "fighting something," she came to Ronda certain the answer was in her thyroid labs. It wasn't. In this Clinical Thinking case study, Ronda traces the real root cause back to compromised digestion and a nervous system running on stress hormones. This 28-year-old executive assistant had all the classic signs practitioners often miss: fasting glucose of 71 (a red flag for metabolic instability), light-colored stools, fatty food intolerance, and that telltale mid-back pain at the bra line. She'd been on Armour thyroid since age 13. She'd survived food poisoning in Costa Rica. And every single panic attack? Happened on a day she'd eaten chocolate. Ronda walks through how she connected the dots, why she started with upper digestion instead of adaptogens, how low glucose and low A1C reveal a system propped up by cortisol and adrenaline, and why the "obvious" first answer is almost never the right one. You'll also hear a practical tip for managing anxious patients: using AI to create organized visit recaps that satisfy their need for structure and reduce the between-appointment panic spirals. If you want to develop this kind of clinical thinking in your own practice, download Ronda's free guide: The 6 Principles of Clinical Thinking