WHY I DO WHAT I DO

As an integrative Health Practitioner, wife, and mother of two girls in their twenties and 6 year old, very energetic twin boys, I totally understand how important one’s health and well-being are in allowing us women to keep up with all of our daily demands, especially as an older mamma to young kids, and with all the health issues that I have struggled with over the last two decades.   

In 2004 at the age of 35, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.  One day I woke up with swollen knees and elbows.  I couldn’t bend them; I couldn’t open up a jar or even walk too far without great discomfort.  It was quite scary and I didn’t know what to expect.  I had two young daughters at the time, 5 and 2.  My father had been recently diagnosed with Leukemia and passed away within a couple of weeks, I had started a new career, and to top it all off we were in the middle of selling our existing home and building a new one.  I know now that it was most likely the stress of all of these events that triggered the expression of my RA symptoms.   

Upon diagnosis, I was immediately started on medications requiring blood work every 3 months in order to monitor the health of my liver.  Insane right?  But our society has been taught to believe that the only solution is to take pills so strong, they could potentially damage our major organs or even cause much more severe health issues down the road, rather than to ask the question WHY……….Why do I have RA? Why am I fatigued all day long?  Why can’t I sleep through the night?  Why am I constipated?  Why am I bloated after meals? Why is my skin breaking out?  Etc.  

In 2016 I became pregnant with twin boys at the age of 47.  I was very concerned about their health and well-being due to my age, as well as how my RA was going to possibly affect me and my unborn children both in the short term and in the long term.  This is when I started to really pay close attention to my overall health, and to what I was putting into and onto my body, as well as my surroundings and overall environment.  I started learning about all the toxins that we are exposed to on a day-to-day basis, the GMOs, pesticides & herbicides in our foods, the EMFs surrounding us, the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink, etc.  This newfound curiosity and complete shock at what I was learning is what led me to take a great interest in the world of integrative health and all the various healing modalities available to us.  I was in search of a more natural way of living that would lighten the toxic load on my body and allow me to live a life without the pain from RA, and without the medications I had been a prisoner to for almost 20 years.  I have finally taken back control of my health, and I want to teach others how to do the same.  

Level 2 Integrative Health Practitioner