My story of how I got healthy and why I do what I do

Where did it all start? Well as a teenager I regularly suffered from a range of unpleasant symptoms from acne to migraines and digestive issues. When I moved to Brighton in my twenties and started a working in a stressful corporate environment, it was exciting and lots of fun. But the lifestyle caused my digestive issues to get worse and I started getting gastritis -and would have nights in terrible pain, with bouts of constipation or diarrhoea and sickness.   The medication I was prescribed just seemed to make me feel worse, and I just started feeling tired all the time. Avoiding dairy and giving up all alcohol for a while helped a great deal but the fatigue and gut issues continued and I stated to get run down, culminating in shingles! It was this point I ended up going to see a Nutritionist. I thought I was eating a ‘healthy’ diet but I was obviously not feeling well and on speaking to her it became apparent how far from healthy my diet actually was and how deficient I was across in many nutrients!    

 

My diet was overhauled and I was amazed at the difference. Even the PMT I’d thought was just a normal part of life disappeared!    This was a transformative time, and I experienced first hand what a difference good nutrition can make and started to develop a passion for it and natural health as a whole.  

 

When I started training in Naturopathy & Nutritional Therapy my eyes were further opened to thinking about what health is and can be.  I loved studying and learning but it was demanding alongside a full-time job and put a greater toll on my body.   Even with my knowledge as a Nutritionist and a good diet I still had lingering post-viral fatigue and digestive issues that the stress of studying and working full -time exasperated. I consulted with my doctor on a number of occasions and following the limited tests that were run nothing was identified– particularly when I was told that the symptoms must be in my head or just normal.

 

This is where taking a Functional Medicine approach, using functional testing and digger deeper into the root cause was the key for me.  Upon initial investigation I found two chronic pathogenic bacterial infections within my digestive system along with some other hormonal imbalances and a long-term virus that was impacting my immune system that was causing the severe fatigue and and interfering in my gut from healing.

 

Knowing exactly what the issues were made it so much easier to address -as I could now do it in a targeted way using food, herbs and lifestyle changes.

 

I was amazed at the difference that changing my diet made when I first did it but it was applying a functional medicine approach to my health really took it to the next level.  This is what allowed me to regain my health, vitality and passion for life and is now my career.