When I genuinely empathise with clients who share their stories of a continual search for solutions in the allopathic (conventional) medicine realm, they often seem incredulous that I would understand. The misperception that I must have enjoyed perfect health for most of my life and that these days I must be a paragon of health and virtue, always tickles me.
As some point or other, I have suffered from all of the complaints on the right and I am still trying to figure some out naturally.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not at all opposed to allopathic (conventional) medicine when it is the best option for the job. In fact, soluble aspirin saved my sanity as a child when we discovered that it was superior to morphine to alleviate MY migraines.
Happily my first experiences of trying api-therapy for chronic back pain and qigong for chronic migraines delivered great results, with both highlighting food sensitivities. Based upon which switching from cow’s dairy to soy partially relieving my bloating, so focusing on nutrition seemed to be the next logical step.
When chronic fatigue hit, I was still in ‘FIX ME MODE’ and my plethora of supplements, the envy of any pill pusher, was my limit until I started to recover. Then I began to research and began to travel with bags of superfoods and cartons of soy milk to add to my breakfast, much to the bemusement of my colleagues.
It was only when my anti-ageing physician said that he ‘didn’t do diet’ and the dietician looked in horror at my supplement stash, instead just giving me basic direction on macronutrient intake and ways to work around cows dairy, that I knew I had to figure this out for myself.
Ready to take the next step, adding a degree in Functional Medicine-based Nutritional Therapy to my existing MBA study commitments and my corporate seemed like the obvious answer and IT WORKED. My health turnaround was progressive, and I kept building my repertoire – going purely whole-food based, then mostly organic, adding exercise, following the Institute of Functional Medicine 5 R framework to heal my gut, ditching the pill, doing the odd Patrick Holford 9 Day Liver Detox… All the while most of my symptoms resolved at least partially.
Yet despite learning to thoroughly explore client’s environmental toxic exposures and emotional sources of toxicity – DETOXIFICATION in all of it’s facets remained the white elephant in the room as far as my own health journey was concerned. For years, I was comfortable with my pragmatic 80/20 approach.
It was only about 5 years back that I started to take an interest in and research this area – initially it was overwhelming contemplating things such as toxins in my personal care products, as I am a self-confessed diva and love my beauty products. However, gradually with growing consciousness I eliminated one toxin and replaced one product at a time.
To be honest, every summit I join and every conference I go to these days, there seems to be sooooo much that I need to integrate – plastics, glyphosate, heavy metals, toxic gases (all topics of future posts) etc. I often wonder how I managed to transform my life initially without actively considering detoxification in all of it’s facets.
Over the last few years, as my clinical practice has evolved so has my habit of daily detox – be it trying out a new food, juice or therapy, clearing clutter, exploring frequencies and energy medicine, ridding myself of bad habits, negative attitudes (all topics for future posts) etc.
Hopefully, this blog will inspire people to KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON! by providing some short-cuts and doable starting points that make navigating this potentially infinite mine-field a little less daunting and a LOT MORE FUN!