There is no cheap or easy way…

I just spent the last 3 days at the Ancestral Health Symposium in Seattle, Washington with some of the brightest minds and biggest pioneers in the functional medicine and health world.  The lecture rooms were filled with naturopaths, functional medicine doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, psychologist, personal trainers and tons of other functional health practitioners, like myself.

The presentations and discussion groups focused on everything from trends in different diets, research studies comparing which diets work best for which individuals, how exercise and gut function play a major role in our health, to the microscopic level of mitochondrial function inside the cells.

The key takeaway from every lecture was…

There is no cheap or easy way to heal the body, it requires a multi-level approach.

The body is an extremely complex system and what we know now about it is just scraping the surface.  There are new advancements in health and understanding happening every day.

And unfortunately most people dealing with chronic health conditions, or not, are getting lost in the system and not getting access to the right information in order prevent or reverse disease.

As this study pointed out, “It is frequently stated that it takes an average of 17 years for research evidence to reach clinical practice.”

That means on average, it takes 17 years for new research and advancements about health and medicine to actually reach your doctor and be put into practice.  By the time it hits their desk, it’s already outdated.

This study and the recent symposium I just attended proves there is more relevant and accurate information out there in regards to what you could be doing for your health.  Your doctor just doesn’t know about it, and the healthcare system policies haven’t caught up to it, so you’ll likely have to go out of network and out of pocket to find the latest and greatest advancements to improve your health.

You need to become your own health boss, assume responsibility and take back control of your health.

I know this first hand.  The conventional medical system has failed me in many ways over the years…
It prescribed me birth control at a young age to mask a painful and irregular period.
It told me to eat a standard American diet, which inflamed my body.
It overlooked health risk factors and markers, which led to skin cancer.
Routine lab tests painted me as the picture of health, but my body was an internal mess.
Various doctors dismissed my estrogen dominance and told me to “wait it out” while suffering.
No one checked me for Hashimoto’s, I had to discover it myself.
And forget about the mold toxicity, because in conventional medicine, it doesn’t even exist.

I refused to live a life full of pain, fatigue, mood swings, weight gain and suffering.  I wasn’t going to let a broken and outdated system get the best of me when we live in a world where information is available immediately on our phones and at our fingertips.

I became a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner because I knew there was more to be known out about our health.  Educating myself has helped me to overcome and heal every single health issue I have been faced with, and now I help my clients do the same.

To be completely transparent, the road to health recovery certainly isn’t cheap or easy.

Since receiving my Hashimoto’s diagnosis and discovering toxic mold in my home less than a year ago, I have done numerous tests, taken handfuls of supplements daily, spent hundreds of dollars on high quality food, spent countless hours meditating and working to create a healthier mindset that would support my healing.

In less than a year, look at how many tests it has taken to reach remission with my Hashimoto’s and get my health back on track:

• Three GI Map stool sample test
• Three DUTCH Cortisol/Hormone tests
• Four home mold tests
• Six metabolic mold tests
• Six thyroid tests
• One organic acids and toxins test

Not everyone needs to run this many tests, but some do.  At least half of these tests were NOT covered by insurance.  I really had to wrap my mind around spending money on myself because my health needed to be a priority.  After all, I wasn’t going to settle for anything less than I deserved when it came to my health, wellness or life.

Less than a year later, I am back to feeling like myself.  My thyroid and hormone levels are balanced and stable, and my inflammatory mold markers are dropping.

In fact, I just hired a personal trainer for myself for the first time in four years to kick up my workout intensity because I finally have my youthful energy back and my body has healed.  Every penny and minute I have spent on this health journey has been more than worth it.

In this week’s video I share more about my health journey, how I invested in myself and what has helped me return to optimal health.

At the Ancestral Health Symposium I attended, Dr. Ruscio gave a great presentation about gut function.  His presentation highlighted studies about the benefits of various diets such as Paleo, low FODMAPS and keto for improving gut function.  All of these diets have been proven to work on various individuals showing that there is no such thing as one-solution-fits-all.

Dr. Ruscio, among many of the other presenters, also emphasized that just diet, exercise, medications or supplements alone won’t restore balance to the body.  You have to incorporate a variety of healing modalities that collectively will help to restore and heal the body.

Over the past year, and even for even longer, I have implemented many changes/tools to help my body heal and to support my health such as:

• Modifying my diet over and over again to meet my body’s needs
• Making sure I was in bed by 10pm at least 5 times a week
• Reducing my exercise when my body was stressed or fatigued
• Taking numerous supplements for different periods of time
• Scheduling monthly massages and regular chiropractic visits
• Ridding my home of toxic products and mold
• Learning to do Mayan abdominal massage on myself
• Using an infrared sauna for at least 20 minutes 2-3 times week
• Liver flushing and colon hydrotherapy
• Kundalini, yoga, meditation, journaling and tapping
• Lab testing, making adjustments and retesting to track my progress
• Learning to speak up for myself and communicate my needs
• Mindset work to increase my feeling of self worth (this was a big one!)

Not one of these things alone could have solved my health problems completely, but the combination of them created a powerful healing force.

Investigating where I was lacking, what needed to be healed and what worked for me is how I reached remission so quickly.

At the Ancestral Health Symposium it was very apparent that the future of healthcare is personalized care, there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all.  The medical system has been trying to put us all in a box based on similarities in symptoms and it hasn’t been working.

Personalized medicine requires us to assume responsibility for our health, to get in tune with our bodies and to be a collaborator in our healthcare – to become your own health boss.  As Dr. Mark Hyman (MD, director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine and chairman of the Institute for Functional Medicine) says, “Health doesn’t happen in the doctor’s office. Health happens where we live, in our kitchens where we cook, and where we eat.”

So in light of this, to help you become your own health boss, Molly Hamill and I are hosting a free webinar – Activate & Upgrade Your Autoimmune Healing on Sept. 19th at 5:30pm PT/ 8:30pm ET

Regardless of whether you have an autoimmune issue or not, this webinar can help you to up-level your health. Molly Hamill and I will be sharing our best practices that we use on ourselves and with our clients to activate and upgrade the healing process in the body. To prevent and/or reverse disease.

In this webinar we will be:

• Sharing our best practices that we use on ourselves and with our clients to heal the body, how to take responsibility for it, and take action to promote health.
• Teaching you how your thoughts, emotions, choices or lifestyle either help or hinder your health
• Showing you how to coach up function in the body by rebuilding your relationship with it and changing your mindset
• Covering all of the different angles of healing (science-based and spiritually) that you need to activate and/or upgrade your healing process

And don’t worry, if you can’t make it live we’ll be sending out a recording to everyone who registers!

Register here for our free webinar – Activate & Upgrade Your Autoimmune Healing on Sept. 19th at 5:30pm PT/ 8:30pm ET

And be one step closer to becoming your own health boss!