Hi, I’m thrilled you're here because that means you have taken a monumental step in your health. It means you know there must be more to your story. Let me tell you a little about me and my story and why I am here!
I Graduated in 2011 with my Bachelors of Science in Nursing, and for 10 years I worked in nearly all areas of acute care. In 2013, I moved to Colorado and my health took a major turn from being a vivacious active athlete to not being able to even walk to my bathroom in the morning or lift my right arm without excruciating pain. I was diagnose with Lupus and told I would be on medications for the rest of my life. This was the first time I asked why, but my conventional doctors could not answer this. I took it upon myself and started studying functional medicine and completely rebooted my diet and lifestyle and weaned myself off all my medications and felt like my old self again.
Then, in 2018, I moved into a different house and within three months I had severe insomnia, brain fog, constipation, skin rashes, big mood swings, and had 3 miscarriages in a row. I was told it was stress and all my doctors could offer me was antidepressants because all my labs were “normal”.
This is when I dove headfirst into a formal functional medicine education. I eventually discovered that I had high levels of toxic mold in my body from our house that had previous water damage. I developed my own detox protocol and got out of the environment and eventually my insomnia disappeared, my rashes cleared, I had my energy back and all my autoimmune markers were negative.
I am now a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner (IFMCP) through the Institute of Functional Medicine, a Mold Literate Practitioner trained through Dr. Jill Crista, and an Apollo: Recode 2 Certified Practitioner trained through Dr. Dale Bredeson, who is one of the only practitioners proven to reverse Alzheimer's and cognitive decline. I am a lifelong student and love to learn. I gained so much confidence in my body when I got sick and asked why. Now I am here to help others empower their body and heal.
I want to be that support for you! I believe that the relationship between a patient and practitioner should be supportive and a partnership. No one knows your body better than you, you know when something is off. Let’s explore together how to optimize your health! If you’re ready to take action I’m here for you!
The Functional Medicine Approach
Functional medicine requires a deep dive into all aspects of a person. Today many practitioners focus on just one area of the body like the heart or gastrointestinal tract. While you can make many gains this way, you are ignoring the delicate dance that the body does to maintain a balance. We must consider all areas and how they work together. At times this will require major lifestyle changes, therapeutic food plans, supplements and letting go of what we know as comfort.
Detox
Detox, also referred to as our environmental health, is a focus of our toxic exposures and how capable we are of processing and eliminating these threats. Basically, we are what we eat, breathe, drink, touch, think and what we can not eliminate. We live in an increasingly toxic world and an individual’s ability to detoxify is of critical importance and individual genetics play a big role. We look at this as a total toxic load and a whole body burden. Even a low level toxic exposure for some people can lead to fatigue, hormone dysregulation, gut health disruption, and degenerative disease like parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s to name a few. A toxic overload can affect all other areas of a body and cause major dysregulation.
Immunity / autoimmunity
We are seeing autoimmune issues on the rise and many more diseases with potential autoimmune drivers. We know that genetics play a role in many of these. We also know that they most likely arise in the presence of microbial or stealth infections, habitually consuming high inflammatory foods, food allergies or intolerances, hormonal imbalances, or toxic exposures. There are many branches to our immune system and many checks and balances. When autoimmunity shows up it means there is some kind of dysregulation that needs to be balanced out. A lot of this “miscommunication” can be regulated by discovering allergies or intolerances, changing the diet, cleaning up toxic environments, and providing the body with proper tools to calm the chaos.
Hormones
Hormones are our master regulators. They are a major form of communication between our organs, cells, and tissues. Hormone replacement therapy has been monumental in many areas and down right scary in others. Our hormones have a delicate balance and by looking upstream with functional medicine we can implement dietary modifications, nutraceuticals (supplements), and other lifestyle changes as a frontline treatment. This can provide the ability to often minimize and avoid hormone therapy. We can address the root cause of hypothyroid, infertility, PCOS, hot flashes, fatigue, painful periods and much more.
Cardiometabolic
Typical heart disease management and diabetes these days is driven by antiquated labs such as cholesterol, blood pressure, BMI and glucose. More recently we have learned that deeper dives into inflammation, oxidative stress, and advanced lipid essays prove to outline multiple causes of cardiometabolic disease. One half of people who have heart attacks have normal cholesterol and we now are finding that driving cholesterol levels lower causes neurodegenerative disease and keeps our body from producing key hormones at adequate levels. By looking at fasting insulin we can predict diabetes 10 years earlier than blood glucose levels. We have a lot more at our disposal with functional work ups.
Bredeson protocol
Alzhiemer’s is a growing and devastating threat in our world today. Dr. Dale Bredeson is a renowned doctor whose protocol is based on decades of research and one that has clinically proven to reverse and stop cognitive decline. His protocol is very much based in the naturopathic / Functional realm that addresses the many assaults our brain is exposed to over our lifetime. It outlines all of the biochemical mechanisms and how they affect our memory and immunity of our brain and how to address and support them. He has identified 36 factors that contribute to “downsizing” of the brain and his protocol is a tool used to help practitioners address these issues head on to prevent subjective and mild cognitive repairs and early Alzheimer’s.
Mold
I speak specifically to Mold as it was a major driver behind my journey. Mold is recognized in the mainstream as an allergen or asthma issue. Unfortunately there’s way more to the story. It can affect all systems of the body and is massively underdiagnosed or under-recognized as a driving factor of disease. As most things it can present in many ways including brain fog, fatigue, rashes, gut issues, visual changes, tinnitus, bladder pain (interstitial cystitis), neuropathies, immune deficiencies, insomnia and much much more. One very consistent underlying symptom is anxiousness or feeling unsettled. With prolonged exposure it can lead to lung remodeling, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and autoimmune. Some people are genetically more sensitive and had a difficult time recognizing mold as foreign and detoxing it. Many times one person in the household is affected and everyone else is fine, which leads to mistrust and many times psychiatric diagnosis.
Energy / bioenergentics
Energy is the driving force behind it all. From our cells, to organ function, to our whole body and the world around us. Our mitochondria, as most know, is the powerhouse of our cells and regulates all things that require energy in our body. Genetics, epigenetics, and toxic exposure can all affect our energy, and that dysregulation can be connected to many clinical conditions. There are many fields we can now explore in relation such as magnetic fields, microcurrent, hands on manipulation, acupuncture and therapeutic relationships. By exploring diet, lifestyle, and exposures on energy and mitochondria, we can address issues such as fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression, neurodegeneration, etc.
GI / gut
We are now affirming what ancient medicine has known for centuries, that the gut and GI tract play a central role in chronic disease. The gut is sometimes referred to as the second brain. We now know that a majority of our serotonin is produced in our gut. We know that the microbiome plays an intricate role in regulating many aspects of a being's overall health. From allergens, to intestinal permeability (leaky gut), pathogens, and digestion we see compromised gut dysfunction and imbalances that leave people with a major diminished vitality. This is often the first place many people start with healing and it alone can start major changes in overall health. Many people can have major gut imbalances without any GI symptoms at all.
Spiritual
At the center of it all is you! Your mind and spirituality and connection to your world. Your relationship with your friends, family, self, soul, food, and earth hold immense power. It’s shown that social isolation increases your inflammatory markers , and fear and sadness lower your immune system response. Perpetual and repetitive thoughts can create your reality. By optimizing your connection to you and your surroundings can create major shifts in vitality!
