M.V. Health

My Health Journey:

My deep interest in integrative nutrition sprouted from my frustrations in my own Health. I was in elementary school when I had my first flare of psoriasis. Psoriasis is an autoimmune condition, rooted in chronic inflammation in the body that leads to red, itchy scaly patches that build up on the skin. I spent years going to the dermatologist, getting prescription after prescription. I was looking at the problem wrong, psoriasis is not a skin disease, it’s an autoimmune disease that causes my own immune system to attack my skin cells. This distinction is very important! Instead of looking for a topical solution (like at the dermatologist) I finally started to look at my autoimmunity, as something I had to fix internally. After all, I had to think about what was stimulating my immune system to attack?

During my undergrad at Harvard University I started to experience really bad flares of psoriasis. I was a student athlete, and I also started getting really bad knee and joint inflammation. When I think of it now, it seems so obvious… I was under an incredible amount of mental stress from balancing schoolwork, sports, and a social life, physical stress from high intensity field hockey every day, and a poor diet. In short— It was my lifestyle. The dining hall food cooked in inflammatory oils, late night snacking (usually on marshmallow mateys— the knock off version of lucky charms), the lack of fruits and vegetables, the lack of high quality nutrients and foods, the mental stress, the physical stresses and exertions on my body, etc…

After graduating, I really wanted to learn more about Nutrition and how I could change my dietary habits to optimize my skin, my health, and my overall wellness. I started by enrolling in Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I LOVED learning in this program! I felt like I was just scratching the surface though, I wanted to dig in deeper and understand nutrition in a clinical perspective and how I could use nutrition therapeutically, after all— food is medicine. That’s when I applied and enrolled in Maryland University of Integrative Health, M.S. of Clinical Nutrition. The Master’s has helped me to understand how its not only the food that we are eating that determines our health, but its an integrative approach. Wholistic health and nutrition considers how all the systems of our body are working, what are the underlying root issues at hand, how does the environment impact health, how does our microbial makeup impact inflammation, etc… No one person is the same. Two people with the same diagnosis, may have two different underlying root causes.

Since graduating, and becoming a CNS, I’ve been working with Functional Medicine Doctor’s, who specialize in optimizing athletic performance and chronic inflammatory conditions. To heal, and to thrive, it’s important to go after the root causes, and understand why the body may be out of balance. It’s not always the easy way, but it’s a sustainable way to find longevity in life. We can use nutrition to functionally support the body and help it work optimally.

Wholistic Nutrition has been such a fascinating field, that has helped educate and teach me, what the underlying root causes to my inflammation have helped me to dramatically reduce my Psoriasis flares. I’d be lying if I said it’s under control 100% of the time. Sometimes I stress myself out, or get sick— and there it goes!— red itchy spots appearing! It’s not about being perfect 100% of the time, but having the tools, the education and the resources to figure out how you can help yourself and feel your best.

-Re