What if the breakage is real—but everyone's looking in the wrong place?

Your doctors see your symptoms as evidence something's wrong with you. They order tests. The tests come back "normal." They suggest therapy, stress management, maybe antidepressants. You feel dismissed. Gaslit. Crazy.

But what if those symptoms, the ones that feel like your body betraying you, are actually evidence your body is still fighting for you?

I'm Dr Catriona Walsh, a Cambridge-educated former consultant paediatrician turned nutrition and lifestyle coach who developed the ATTRACT theory (Accumulating Toxicants and Their Reactive Attraction Compromises Tissues) after recovering from gadolinium toxicity that medicine said was impossible. My work has been featured in The Daily Mail, Sky News, Evening Ulster, and on the Untaming Podcast, Quax Podcast, and Simple Steps To Wellness Podcast. This 6-minute video explains why normal blood tests miss chronic illness, what's actually happening in your body when tests say you're "fine," and why understanding changes everything.

Prefer to read? Full transcript with timestamps below:

[0:00] Normal Test Results But Feel Terrible: The Hidden Paradox

"But you look healthy!" Normal scans. Normal labs. Yet you feel like you're 80... and doctors hint it's anxiety. You're not imagining it. What if the breakage is real? But everyone's looking in the wrong place. You've done everything "right." Collected diagnoses or endless "normal" tests. Exhausted, foggy, in pain. Nothing truly fixes it. Sound familiar?

[0:30] Treating Branches, Missing the Root: Why Specialised Medicine Fails the "Invisible" Patient

What if specialists are treating branches while missing the root? What if one explanation ties everything together? This framework comes from Dr. Catriona Walsh—The Food Phoenix—former consultant paediatrician who recovered from gadolinium toxicity. What medicine called impossible.

[0:50] The Fluid Body: The Hidden Chemistry of Charged Particles and Minerals

Your body is charged particles suspended in fluid. Positive charges: iron, calcium, mercury. Negative charges: oxalates, nutrients. Left unchecked, opposites attract and crystallise. That would kill you.

[1:10] Molecular Guardians: Meet the Proteins That Keep You Thriving (and Pain-Free)

So your body has molecular guardians: proteins that store reactive minerals safely. When this works, you thrive: energised, clear-minded, pain-free. You don't just "look healthy." You are.

[1:25] Modern Life vs. Your Design Spec: Why Our Environment Overwhelms Our Defences

But modern life wasn't in the design specs. Chronic stress, environmental toxins, processed foods. Your guardians get overwhelmed. They can't keep up. When they fail, your body faces a choice: crystallise from the inside out, or activate every emergency protocol available.

[1:45] The Survival Choice: Why Your Body Chooses Crisis Mode Over Comfort

It chooses survival. Every single time. Your body starts recruiting molecules never meant for this job. Structural proteins. Immune molecules. Even proteins that misfold to reveal hidden charged surfaces.

[2:01] Electrostatic Mops: How Your Body Tries to Bind and "Escort" Out Toxins

They become electrostatic mops, binding toxicants and escorting them out through urine, bile, skin, even tears. Preventing crystallisation while you eliminate the threat. Brilliant. Also desperate.

[2:18] When Salvation Becomes Damnation: The Moment Your Body's Defence Turns Into a Clog

Here's where salvation becomes damnation. These mops get saturated. Crystallisation crosslinks them into matted clumps—stuck to blood vessel walls or clogging kidneys as immune complexes.

[2:33] Functional Starvation: Why Your Cells Are Starving in the Midst of Plenty

Meanwhile, crystals form their own gravitational pull, trapping nutrients in black holes where your cells can't access them. Functional starvation in the midst of apparent plenty.

[2:55] The Trigger Strategy: Why Your Immune System "Chooses" Targets Like Food and Pollen

Your body needs to keep producing mops. But antibody production requires a trigger: an excuse the immune system understands. So it gets creative. Foods you've eaten for years become convenient targets. Pollen. Dander. Suddenly, you have allergies. Not malfunction. A survival strategy with unfortunate side effects.

[3:20] NETosis: The Kamikaze Defence: When Your Cells Explode to Protect the Whole

When that's not enough, pus cells go kamikaze through NETosis—exploding to neutralise bacteria or toxins. The debris becomes new excuses for antibody production. Now your immune system has targets everywhere: your own DNA, mitochondria, structural proteins. Autoimmunity emerges. Not random malfunction, but strategic desperation.

[3:45] Strategic Desperation: Reframing Autoimmunity as a Survival Move

The cascade ripples through every system. Mast cells orchestrate. Connective tissue gets cannibalised for emergency mops. This is why autoimmune conditions damage joints and skin. Amyloid proteins misfold into additional mops. Hello, Alzheimer's. Antibody cells clone frantically. Hey there, myeloma. Same mechanism, different manifestations.

[4:13] One Response, Five Diseases: Why Your Symptoms Aren't Separate "Conditions"

Your symptoms aren't five different diseases. They're one coordinated emergency response playing out across every system simultaneously.

This is why specialists can't fix you. Each one treats their piece without seeing the pattern. Consequences without causes. It's why medications help briefly, then stop. Why "healthy" interventions backfire. You were following advice designed for bodies not in crisis mode.

[4:44] Why "Healthy" Habits Backfire: The Truth About Spinach Smoothies and Probiotics

That spinach smoothie? Oxalates became crystal seeds in your already-overwhelmed system. Those probiotics? They hit a barrier that couldn't handle even beneficial bacteria.

None of this was your fault. You were doing exactly what you were told. But here's what changes everything:

[5:04] Dismantling the Cascade: The Systematic Path Back to Biological Balance

A mechanism that can be understood can be systematically dismantled. Your body isn't betraying you. It's pulling every lever to keep you alive. But at tremendous cost.

Once you see the whole cascade—equilibrium disrupted, salvation activated, damnation taking hold—you can finally support your body back toward balance. Not by suppressing symptoms. By addressing root causes. Replenishing what's depleted. Reducing toxic load. Restoring what's been cannibalised.

You're not collecting random diagnoses. You're witnessing one magnificent system under siege, doing everything possible to keep you alive.

[5:50] Your Body's Desperate Brilliance: A New Way to See Your Health—and Your Future

Once you see this cascade, you can't unsee it. Welcome to understanding your body's desperate brilliance. Now let's give it what it actually needs.

If this resonated—if you've been dismissed, told your labs are 'normal' while you feel terrible—you're not alone. And you're not imagining it. The Food Phoenix works with people navigating exactly this. Overwhelmed systems. Emergency protocols that became chronic. The recovery path nobody else sees. One conversation can shift everything. Book your free comprehensive health assessment below to understand your ATTRACT cascade.

"My life is worth living again"

Ready to understand your specific cascade?

If This Resonated, Let's Talk

Can You Be Sick With Normal Test Results? Yes—And Here's Why

If you've been dismissed, told your labs are "normal" while you feel terrible, or labelled with "functional neurological disorder" or "health anxiety"—you're not alone. And you're not imagining it.

I work with people navigating exactly this: overwhelmed systems, emergency protocols that became chronic, recovery paths nobody else sees.

Free Comprehensive Health Assessment (90 minutes)

During your assessment, we'll:

Helpful to bring (but not required):

Don't worry if you don't have all of this organised—we'll work with what you have. Many of my clients are too brain-fogged or exhausted to have perfect records. That's completely normal and expected.

This isn't a sales call. It's a genuine assessment. If I can help you, I'll tell you how. If I can't, I'll tell you that too. What I won't do is dismiss you, gaslight you, or tell you it's "just anxiety."

You've spent long enough being told the problem is in your head when the evidence is in your cells. 

Learn More About Working Together

What Clients Say

Margaret M. - Dental Implant Preparation

Kerry M. - Gadolinium Toxicity Recovery

Maria G. - Three-Year Health Transformation

Further Reading

Understanding Why Tests Fail:

Gadolinium Toxicity & MRI Contrast:

Support Your Recovery:

Free Guide: Stress Management for Burnout - Quick self-care activities that actually work when you're exhausted

The 8 Best Energy Supplements for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Work With Me:

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why do I have symptoms but normal blood work?

  Standard blood tests measure nutrients and minerals circulating in your bloodstream, not what's trapped in your tissues or locked inside crystals your body formed to prevent system failure. You can have "normal" blood levels while your cells experience functional starvation because the nutrients are sequestered where they can't be accessed or used.

• Can you be sick with normal test results?

  Absolutely. Standard testing is designed to detect established disease patterns, not the sophisticated survival mechanisms your body activates to prevent that disease. When your body recruits emergency "mop" molecules to bind toxicants, those mops trap both toxins and essential nutrients—but this happens at the tissue level, invisible to standard blood tests.

• What is ATTRACT theory?

  ATTRACT stands for Accumulating Toxicants and Their Reactive Attraction Compromises Tissues. It's a framework that explains how environmental toxins, dietary compounds, and metabolic byproducts overwhelm your body's primary defense systems, forcing it to activate emergency protocols that become chronic dysfunction. It reveals why symptoms cluster together and why standard medicine consistently misses the root cause.

• Why don't doctors believe me when tests are normal?

  Your doctors aren't lying or dismissing you—they're reading the tests in front of them, which genuinely look "normal." The problem is what those tests measure. They show what's floating in your bloodstream, not what's sequestered in tissues, not what's bound in immune complexes, not what's trapped in crystals. The gap between test results and your lived experience is real, but it's a gap in testing methodology, not in your reality.

• What blood tests don't show in chronic illness?

  Blood tests can't show: nutrients trapped in tissue crystals, toxins deposited in organs, whether your body can convert precursor vitamins into active forms, if your cellular transport systems are functioning, tissue-level inflammation and damage, or mitochondrial dysfunction. They measure presence in circulation, not bioavailability or function.

• Why did I suddenly develop food allergies?

  Your body needs to produce antibodies (emergency "mops") to bind accumulating toxicants, but antibody production requires a trigger—a target the immune system recognizes. Foods you've eaten safely for years become convenient excuses for your immune system to manufacture the molecular tools it desperately needs. This isn't malfunction—it's strategic survival with unfortunate side effects. The "allergy" symptoms are real, but they're secondary to the primary cascade.

• Can chronic illness with normal labs be reversed?

  Yes, but not by suppressing symptoms or treating each manifestation separately. The ATTRACT cascade can be systematically dismantled by addressing multiple intervention points simultaneously: restoring gut barrier integrity, regulating nervous system function, providing depleted nutrients, supporting mitochondrial recovery, optimizing sleep, reducing environmental toxin exposure, and addressing trauma. Recovery takes time and may involve temporary setbacks as trapped toxins mobilize, but understanding the mechanism makes those setbacks predictable rather than discouraging.

• What is functional neurological disorder really?

  "Functional neurological disorder" is often the diagnosis given when symptoms are real but tests show nothing diagnostically significant. What it actually represents, in many cases, is a sophisticated emergency response operating at the tissue and cellular level—invisible to standard testing. Your nervous system isn't malfunctioning randomly; it's experiencing the downstream effects of mitochondrial dysfunction, nutrient sequestration, and inflammatory cascades that don't register on conventional scans or blood work.

Currently accepting 1-to-1 clients while developing the Ancient Body, Modern World programme. Join 3,000+ people following this work on Facebook.

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