“If you don’t make the time to work on creating the life you really want, you’re eventually going to be spending a lot of time dealing with a life you don’t want.” ~ Kevin Ngo.
I love this quote! This is why I chose to become an educator of lifestyle and health. I have never bought into society’s beliefs that it is “normal” to live a life full of disease, feeling run-down, achy, and just plain bad every day. I especially have never bought into the idea that just because you are “old” you are going to suffer with a myriad of ailments. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the human body, and some things slow down as we age; however, I just read an article about a pole-vaulter who is 84 years old (and she didn’t start until she was 60)! This should show us that we do not have to live with all of the “normal” ailments that supposedly come with age.
I have always been interested in natural health. When my oldest daughter was a baby, 20 years ago, I did everything I could to treat her illnesses naturally. I was blessed to have a doctor who was very knowledgeable in natural health, guiding me in treating her. That began my self-education about treating illnesses with herbs and food versus medicine. I found myself reading herb and nutrition books for fun. I partnered with a nutrition company selling products for them and training other sales people on their product line; working with them taught me even more about herbs and nutrition. Every time a friend or family member was talking about their health, I found myself trying to treat their illness with herbs, nutrition, and lifestyle changes (whether they wanted me to or not!).
It was becoming clear that I should be exploring a career in this industry, but it became crystal clear after I dealt with my own health issues. Even though I was eating healthy (so I thought anyway; I later learned my diet wasn’t nearly as healthy as I thought it was) and taking supplements (a.k.a. “doing everything right”) my health quickly declined over a couple years. Eventually it was hard for me to even get out of bed most days! I am a high energy, highly motivated person, and I suddenly found myself overwhelmed with fatigue, brain fog, migraines, and anxiety so bad it was hard for me to drive. This was not characteristic of me at all!
I went the conventional medicine route and took the medications they told me to, but found no relief. It was discouraging and frustrating and just plain made me depressed. I really did not want to live the rest of my life this way. I eventually starting seeing an ND that practiced functional medicine. I finally got some answers: I found out that at the “ripe old age” of 26, I was pre-menopausal, pre-diabetic, barely producing cortisol, and I had auto-immune thyroiditis (Hashimoto’s). I followed their protocol, and within a few months I was feeling better. Within a year I was like a new person!
I was so tired of feeling miserable and anxious that, when I finally felt better, I really wanted to share with other people how they could do it too. I feel blessed to have gone though my healing journey because I have experience such a wide array of symptoms that I can personally relate to most people that walk into my office!
In the journey of treating my family and my self-education, I always searched for why we were feeling bad; I didn’t just look for a pill that would take away our symptoms. For instance, it didn’t seem normal to me that I would suffer from migraines weekly: there had to be a reason why I was getting these awful headaches constantly. Once I found out that blood sugar issues and stress were triggering my migraines, I began treating those issues; now I do not suffer with migraines anymore!
This is why when I started formally studying natural health functional medicine: it just made sense. I am now a Natural Health Practitioner with a functional medicine emphasis and I am working on a doctorate in alternative medicine.
What Is Functional Medicine?
Functional medicine approaches your health differently than conventional medicine. With functional medicine, we are looking for the root cause of your symptoms. By treating the root cause, your symptoms can go away for good! This works in all areas of disease from migraines, to high blood pressure/cholesterol, to weight loss, to irritable bowel syndrome, to thyroid issues, to basically any diagnosis your doctor has given you. Often, people turn to functional medicine after years of feeling bad and seeing doctors and having doctors tell them that their labs are normal, yet nothing is wrong with them. Functional medicine is then able to find the root cause of why they feel bad and work towards restoring health and wellness to their body.
My goal for this column is to empower people to take charge of their own health and help people to be able to live their life feeling their best every day. I want to help people realize that living with things like fatigue, bloating, gas, brain fog, headaches, high cholesterol, aches and pains, etc. every day isn’t “normal.” I want to inspire people to ask questions about their health and listen to their own bodies and not accept it when they don’t feel good. I want to educate people on how to restore health and vitality to their lives. I want to give people real tangible bits of wisdom that, if deployed into their daily lives, will actually make them feel better.
**My next column will focus on fall allergies. Just because it is ragweed season doesn’t mean you have to live with allergies every day!**
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Amanda Baenisch NHP, CNHC, CBP is a Natural Health Practitioner who has been working with people to improve their health and wellness through food, herbs, supplements, energy work, and natural health counseling for over 10 years. Learn more, and book an appointment, at dailyapplewellnesscenter.com
**Amanda is not a doctor and does not diagnose or treat disease, rather she educates people on how to get healthy, be well, and feel good!