I was a Division I athlete first. After my playing career I moved into personal training and group exercise, and from there I became a strength and conditioning coach. I was coaching at Rockhurst Athletics while I earned my doctorate there. I thought I understood bodies.
Then I started having problems with mine, and I found out how hard it is to get anyone to help you with them.
I did what you're supposed to do. I went from specialist to specialist, I explained what was happening and several doctors, multiple surgeries, and several years later, what I saw is that when traditional medicine doesn't know what's wrong with you, it really only has two things to offer: medication or surgery.
None of it made me better. It made me exhausted, frustrated, and very alone. I was a Doctor of Physical Therapy who couldn't get a straight answer about her own body.
I did get better eventually… but not from any of that. I got better when I discovered the field of functional medicine and learned to read my own bloodwork and approach the systems in my body holistically. There's a major difference between normal and optimal.
Optimal is what we should be working toward. The appropriate markers are rarely tested for, interpreted incorrectly and almost never encouraged in the traditional model.
It's the whole reason I look at the person in front of me instead of just the part that's complaining.
