My Story - A Lifetime of Health Awareness

I grew up in household where health was a dominate theme. My mom lost both of her parents at an early age to cardiovascular disease. Her dad died when she was 16 from a massive heart attack. Her mom died about 10 years later, from a stroke, when she was pregnant with my little sister.

I was only 3 years old.

Determined to protect her own family from the pain she endured from such unimaginable loss, my mom dedicated herself to living a heart-healthy lifestyle. Diet and exercise were paramount in her life.

Thanks to her efforts, she’s outlived both of her parents by more than 30 years and is still ballroom dancing at the age of 84. Because of her influence I'm now a natural health care provider, a doctor, committed to the prevention of chronic disease.

My journey into natural health care started with my first trip to the chiropractor for back pain in my 20s. After a series of "interesting encounters" I found myself pursuing a career as a massage therapist. That 6 month training changed my life forever. I learned about the bodymind connection, yoga, Chinese medicine, and nutrition.

It was then that I was introduced to the concepts of leaky gut, autoimmune disease and adrenal fatigue. This was back in the 80s. Very few people were teaching about that back then. I was blessed to get those downloads when I did. While living in CA PRE internet, I was drawn to amazing teachers who kept my curiousity about natural healing going.

Fast forward 15 years and I'm living in Kauai, following my dreams as a massage therapist and I find another chiropractor. This time he looks at my bloodwork and tells me all sorts of things no doctor ever told me. I was enthralled. Basically, I was dehydrated, anemic and need to support my digestive system.
What I didn't know, even back then, is that there was a new paradigm in health called Functional Medicine.

As a massage therapist, I shared everything I knew about holistic medicine with my clients. I often said "I should have been a doctor" In 2008 I had the opportunity to peruse that idea and enrolled in acupuncture school at AIMC Berkeley. It was then that I started to get a handle on my own issues... anemia, hypothyroid Hashimoto's, fibroids, headaches, digestive issues and more.

After completing my masters program, and getting licensed to practice acupuncture I decided to peruse a doctoral degree in Integrative Family Medicine and Pain Management. My 2018 dissertation was titled "Integrating Functional Blood Lab Analysis with Traditional Chinese Medical Diagnosis for the Prevention of Chronic Disease" (stay tuned for my presentation - its still quite timely)

I have since done no less than a dozen different training in Functional Blood Lab Analysis, and two certification programs in Functional medicine as well.

Did I mention... I was the high scorer of the chemistry team in high school. Yep, once a geek, always a geek.

All this to say, this work is my passion. It is an honor and a privilege to help fellow women over 50 go from:

Cranky and confused to clear and confident

Exhausted to empowered

Frustrated to free

Blah to brilliant

Sad to sexy

We still have SO much to contribute to our communities. We deserve to feel our best, so we can truly thrive in our sage years.

When I'm not diving in to another study, zoom or training, you can find me hiking, photographing nature, hanging out with my 5 parakeets, getting my butt to the gym or studying Human Design.