My Story
It is with great passion and purpose that I present this website.
In essence, it is a compilation of close to thirty years of dedication to my profession of being a nutritionist and health coach. My professional career has encompassed national publications, doing TV and radio — but mostly trying to help others attain higher levels of health.
The journey that led me here started as a personal quest close to 30 years ago. It seemed that the people I loved most were falling apart around me. One of my earliest childhood memories was watching paramedics carry my mother out of the house when she had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in her early 30’s.
As a young adult I went to Cleveland to be by my father’s side when he had open heart surgery. I remember my uncle suffering a heart attack and leaving my young cousins without their father. Almost everyone in the family had heart disease. No one on my mother’s side held on to their gall bladder past the age of thirty-five. Then there was the sister with asthma and allergies, the aunt with diabetes, the cousins with ADHD, the handicapped child, and the uncle with cancer.
When I was in my early 2O’s and trying to start a family, suffering a miscarriage robbed me of my sense of invincibility. Neither youth nor desire could save me from what I perceived as my family’s “curse” of poor health. I was shattered. Many more years of health “tragedies” followed until I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I had had it.
Even though I enjoyed my profession of being an English teacher on the high school and college levels, I headed back to school, this time for nutrition.
Being one of the oldest students in the class seemed like a difficult challenge at first, but it actually gave me a different perspective on things. My maturity and life’s experiences motivated me to go beyond simply getting good grades. I wanted to truly understand the relationship that diet, lifestyle, environment, and stress have on influencing an individual’s propensity to illness or health.
Why do some people get sick while others enjoy great vitality, energy and health throughout their entire lives? Every book I read led me to the same conclusion — nutrition and lifestyle were the cornerstones to “wellness”. What I discovered is that we all have some inherent weaknesses. I call these our genetic "Achilles’ heals". ls their heart disease in the family, Alzheimer’s, depression, or cancer? I like to say… Did you choose the right parents, did you get ”designer” genes or just plain old “Levis”?
What role does environment and lifestyle play? Do you smoke, drink too much alcohol, endure constant stress, or get too little sleep? It turns out that lifestyle accounts for one’s level of health even more than “the luck of the draw”, your genes. One of my professors used to say: “Your lifestyle washes over your genes”. So what you do with what you’ve got really matters in terms of how healthy you will be.
My studies also made me realize that the food chain today is like none other in the history of mankind. We have paid a high price for convenience and fast foods. Many nutrients are destroyed during the processing and packaging of foods. The increased tendency to pick and ship produce before ripening reduces its nutritional value. Depletion of nutrients from the soil and mass production farming has resulted in nutritionally inferior crops.
Our modern food processing methods have allowed for a total disconnect between the agricultural system and what ends up on the dinner table.
The settlers of this country grew their food in close to 25 inches of top soil containing all the nutrients needed to maintain health. Today, our top soil is barely 6 inches deep and virtually devoid of the majority of nutrients so important for sustaining our health.
Alcohol, caffeine, medications, stress, pollutants, insecticides, and artificial fats all rob the body of essential nutrients.
Because so many different factors influence our nutritional needs, the use of nutritional supplementation to enhance health and well-being is a core concept and an essential part of maintaining wellness. In today’s world, I believe that supplementation is absolutely necessary.
The advances of 21st Century medicine revolve around the concept that diseases can be identified by objective testing, whether by x-rays, CAT scans, MRls, or blood tests. Though conventional medicine and its phenomenal technology excel in the management of crisis care, managing bacterial infections, and heroically complex surgical techniques, it seems to have failed miserably in the areas of disease prevention and in imparting to Americans the concept that at least, to some degree, we are all responsible for our own health.
Modern Western medicine does not see us as whole human beings. What is being missed is something much more basic - so much of our health depends upon our own actions and lifestyle choices. In reality, illness begins on a cellular level when the body does not have the raw materials to function properly.
By trying to chart a path to health for myself, I am now able to share the gift of nutrition with others. In order to help promote health and wellness, I have developed this website. This endeavor reflects what I have learned over the years and I am excited to impart this information.
State-of-the-art supplements that are available only through professionals will be featured as well as products that reflect innovative formulations based on their bioavailability and chemistries. It is a misconception to think that all supplements are created equal. The quality of supplements can vary tremendously. Every supplement presented on this website has been produced in a GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) facility, reflecting the highest standards in the industry today.
Health is our most precious gift. Given our busy lifestyles, most of us just take it for granted. We only take notice when things aren’t going well... the backache, arthritis in our knees, frequent heartburn, sleepless nights, too many headaches, or feelings of depression.
One of my middle-aged clients described herself as the “walking wounded.” Just because someone isn’t overtly ill doesn’t mean he/she is healthy!
Most of us muddle through the day with those types of symptoms that diminish the quality of our lives, but aren’t serious enough to put us into a hospital bed, keep us home from work, or keep us from performing our daily chores. But these little annoyances can be for-bearers of more serious challenges to overall health and wellness.
Most people would agree that their desire is not so much to extend their life span indefinitely, but to add quality to their health and to have active, vital and productive years for the time they do have.
Health is affected by so many factors including diet, genetics, activity, stress immune status, allergies, infections, aging, hormonal status, toxic load from the environment, and even various medications that a person may be taking.
As a country spending so many billions of dollars on health care, we need to embrace a new architecture of building blocks to health, and that involves Prevention. Each of us needs to recognize that we can and must take responsibility for our health to a greater degree.
It is my fervent hope that this website be used as a source for accessing quality information, knowledge, and products that will allow you to accomplish those goals!