My Health History
15 years ago, I was living in Sydney enjoying the many perks of a career in media – late night gigs, free booze, I even smoked - long skinny menthol cigarettes that cost a fortune! As for my diet, I *thought* I was was pretty "healthy". Toast with Vegemite and margarine for breakfast, takeaway sushi for lunch and dinner was often a simple pasta dish with veggies.
Eventually, life and love lead me to Noosa where my media career ended but everything else stayed the same other than perhaps the amount of time I spent outside, although I never left the house without a thick layer of SPF. The chemical variety…
During these years I suffered chronic UTIs and irritable bowel syndrome. My specialist performed an invasive cystoscopy to rule out an anatomical explanation and eventually I was prescribed a daily low dose antibiotic to keep the infection at bay. At no point in time was my lifestyle questioned, and a better one was certainly never prescribed. I don't recall anyone ever addressing inflammation, my acid and pH balance, nutrient deficiencies or anything else that could help identify the root cause of my poor health. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the daily antibiotic was severely impacting my microbiome, exacerbating my IBS and causing me to have severe anxiety and panic attacks. I fell into the "pill for an ill" cycle, simply told my symptoms would require ongoing “management” with pharmaceuticals and that I should accept "this is just me". At one point I recall the urologist even suggesting I cease waxing my pubic area. The ignorance is WILD.
Fast forward 10 years, and I welcomed my daughter and first child into the world (FYI I had quit smoking by then!). The first few years of her life were tough. I suffered with frequent bouts of mastitis and severe post natal anxiety. As for my daughter, she screamed and projectile vomited constantly. She only passed a bowel motion every 10-12 days and writhed with constipation pain. She developed severe allergies where she’d break out in hives that covered her entire face and body. She had painful eczema on the backs of her legs, groin and abdomen that would wake her up at night so sore and itchy that she'd scream the house down. She suffered with nappy rash so severe her skin became excoriated and she was often sick with ear infections and croup coughs. She was always very anxious and clingy with me, easily frightened by loud noises, strangers looking at her or god forbid anyone other than me trying to hold or speak to her!
I may have accepted my own poor state of health but seeing my tiny daughter in so much pain and discontentment, and getting no more than an Epipen, antibiotics, steroids and comments like “hopefully she’ll grow out of it” from specialist paediatricians and immunologists we paid hundreds and waited months to see was NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
My Daughter Inspired My Journey To Wellness
So, I started to research. I took her to chiropractors and nutritionists and naturopaths and kinesiologists. We performed functional tests that addressed her biochemical and nutritional status; and DNA tests that looked at her unique genetic variations and how they impacted her physiological processes. I began to provide her with practitioner grade supplements to correct her nutritional deficiencies. I used “food as medicine” to heal her gut and detox her tissues. I switched our family to a wholefoods diet that prioritised food quality over food quantity. I removed the toxic chemicals from our home – cleaning and laundry products, cosmetics and food etc. I filtered our water and began eating predominantly organic or spray free. I let her pale skin be exposed to the sun and favoured time in nature over time indoors… I made one small change at a time until each one became our norm.
Eventually, things started to shift. Her symptoms radically improved. We returned to hospital to perform oral allergy challenges and left the immunology team dumbfounded by her ability to consume large quantities of foods she was once considered to have an anaphylactic allergy to.
Through the process I also experienced a recovery of my own ailments. I was no longer suffering with anxiety or panic attacks, I hadn’t had an infection of any kind in years and my gut issues improved significantly. I felt better than I’d ever felt despite the stressful circumstances!
I was compelled to share what I had learned with others. So, at age 32 while I was on maternity leave raising a newborn and a toddler, I returned to university to chip away at my Bachelor of Health Science (Clinical Nutrition) during nap times and at night, which I graduated from with Distinction.
I may not have tens of years of professional practice like many other holistic practitioners do, but I do have deeply personal and lived experience. My appetite for knowledge is insatiable and there is no supplement, diet or lifestyle I prescribe that I haven’t tried myself. I’m obsessed with learning and can’t imagine a time I’m not enrolled in a course... or four! I'm currently studying at Denise Furness’s Academy for Precision Health and I look forward to offering comprehensive nutrigenomic and epigenetic testing and analysis in my clinic in late 2025. I am an avid meditator, an exercise enthusiast, and I dabble in energy reading. My two little people are everything to me and watching them grow and thrive with cultivated awareness of their environment lights me up.
My mission is to arm families with the knowledge and tools needed to adopt a genuinely nourishing and non restrictive lifestyle; to understand their unique genetic blueprint, and empower them to "biohack" their health for optimal well-being and longevity.
