What They Came In For: IBS

When Josh L. first came in, he was embarrassed to talk about what was going on. Not because it was a secret exactly—he’d already been to his primary care doctor, a GI specialist, and a nutritionist. He’d Googled more than he wanted to admit. He’d tried cutting out gluten, dairy, coffee, sugar. Tried probiotics, peppermint capsules, digestive enzymes. Nothing really helped.

But still, the idea of describing his digestion out loud to a stranger felt like crossing a line. “I just don’t want to be that guy,” he said. “You know, the one who won’t shut up about his stomach.”

His symptoms had been going on for over two years by then—long enough to start shaping how he lived. Some days were fine. Other days, he’d eat something perfectly normal—grilled chicken, a salad, a bowl of rice—and suddenly be doubled over with cramping and urgency an hour later. Sometimes he was constipated for days. Other times, everything ran straight through. He couldn’t predict it. Couldn’t track it. He just always had to be near a bathroom, just in case.

The GI doctor told him it was IBS and ruled out anything more serious. Which was reassuring. But also… not.

“It kind of felt like getting diagnosed with a shrug,” Josh told us. “Like, well, it’s not cancer, so good luck out there.”

By the time he came to Root and Branch, he was tired—of managing, of second-guessing every meal, of pretending like everything was fine when it wasn’t. He didn’t necessarily expect Chinese medicine to fix it. But he figured it couldn’t hurt to try something different.

We started, as we always do, by listening. We asked about his symptoms, yes—but also about his story. About how long things had felt off. About how stress landed in his body. About the nights his gut kept him awake, and the strange way everything tightened during even minor decisions. In Chinese medicine, IBS isn’t a single condition—it’s a pattern. And patterns are about relationships, not just symptoms.

We looked at his tongue, felt his pulse, asked questions that might seem unrelated—about his energy, his sleep, his ability to relax after meals. His body was sending clear signals: a digestive system stuck in a state of overreaction, with underlying weakness and cold. A gut that had lost its rhythm—and was now swinging too far in both directions.

That’s where the herbal medicine came in.

We formulated a custom blend just for him—something to gently warm the center, regulate the bowel, and calm the overactivity without suppressing it. Not a one-size-fits-all gut cleanse. Not something to mask the discomfort. But a formula crafted to meet his body exactly where it was, and help guide it back toward balance.

That formula became the foundation of his care. It changed as he changed—adjusted every few weeks to respond to how his symptoms shifted. It was the steady thread that helped his gut relearn how to behave with consistency, how to regulate, how to heal.

We paired it with acupuncture to support the nervous system and settle the emotional undercurrents. But it was the herbs that did the heavy lifting. Within the first week, his urgency calmed. Within two weeks, his bowel movements had begun to normalize. Meals felt less like a risk. The panic around food started to dissolve.

“I didn’t realize how loud my gut had become until it got quiet,” he told us one day. “I feel like my whole system is less reactive now. Like I finally have a little space between what I eat and what happens next.”

That’s one of the things we hear often in the clinic: not just that people feel better, but that they feel more in relationship with their bodies again. Less like they’re fighting themselves. More like they’re being heard.

Josh’s symptoms didn’t disappear overnight. But over time, his gut stopped being the loudest voice in the room. He started trusting his digestion again. Started eating meals without bracing. Started going about his day without needing an exit strategy.

What he came in for was relief.

What he got was something deeper: clarity, regulation, and a sense of being understood.

If you’re struggling with digestive issues that seem invisible to everyone else, know that you’re not alone—and you’re not imagining it. And if you’ve been told “there’s nothing else to try,” we’d like to gently offer: there might be.

Because we don’t just treat IBS. We treat people. And your body is always telling a story. We're here to help it tell a different one.