My Path In Pursuit of Optimal Health
If a doctor came into your room and told you that your heart could stop beating any minute, how would you react? For me, it meant letting go of ‘healthy’ food rules and restrictions and starting the path of recovery from a life-threatening eating disorder. Despite adhering to my prescribed treatment plan, I left the hospital still feeling deeply confused about what constitutes healthy eating and where to go from there.
I attended nursing school right out of high school. Devastatingly, it felt like an extension of what I had personally experienced in my teenage years. I watched patients entering the hospital’s doors as if they were regulars at a local coffee shop. I knew from struggling with my eating disorder that nutrition was an essential component of health.
But why was no-one treating it as such? And why weren’t healthcare providers interested in the root cause of disease? I left behind the reactive, pharmaceutical-driven world of nursing school only to face the same dichotomy between nutrition and health in a registered dietetics program elsewhere.
It wasn’t until I discovered functional medicine that I finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Here was a holistic approach to health that considered the interconnectedness of bodily systems, prioritizing nutrition, lifestyle factors, and personalized medicine—at last! After so much exasperation and hopelessness, I was overcome with optimism and renewed purpose. Years of education, personal experience, and intuition fell into place. I was irrevocably en route to genuine healing and transformation.