Hello! I’m Heidi.
In October of 2005 I got stung by a wasp on the hand. When I woke the next morning, my hand was swollen and looked very badly bruised, almost black. I went to the hospital and was treated for blood poisoning. The antibiotics seemed to clear up the infection and all was well until the end of December, when my lips swelled up and I looked like I had gotten injections in my lips.
Over the next seven years I went to many doctors trying to figure out what was wrong. The answers were always the same “your test results came back and everything is normal. Take these (antidepressants) and you will be fine”.
In 2012 I was diagnosed with Celiac disease and figured out that MSG was the root of my migraines.
My annoying symptoms were now a daily struggle. My symptoms progressed to include migraines, upper back and neck pain, pms mood swings, anxiety, poor memory, and an inability to concentrate.
I wanted to have a life where I was not feeling lousy all the time. I did not want my symptoms to run my life. I wanted to be able to make plans without wondering if I was going to be well enough.
I was feeling more anxious about the answers, or rather, the lack of answers I was getting from my doctor. I became frustrated that they kept trying to give me antidepressants for my
“normal” test results while my symptoms were getting worse. I turned to Dr. Google (started searching the Internet) because I was not getting better and I did not feel that antidepressants were the answer.
In my search I came across an article by Christa Orecchio talking about the “band-aid” approach to healthcare. The “band-aid” approach to healthcare is taking a medication to treat a specific symptom. When a specific symptom is treated with a medication we quite often require another medication because we develop reactions and or new symptoms from the first medication, lowering the body's healing ability. I was going to get out of the “band-aid” medicine model.
I needed to change my mindset from getting rid of my symptoms with medications to managing my symptoms by getting to the root causes. However I still struggled with where to find the answers.
After eliminating gluten and MSG my migraines went away, however I was still having some nagging symptoms and my anxiety was getting worse. Through my education and wellness mentors I learned that if you just treat the dis-ease or diagnosis you are just putting a band-aid on the wound.
By getting to the root cause and healing the damage done to my gut from the years of exposure to gluten I was able rebuild my health and manage my anxiety.
My Training
- Institute for Interrogative Nutrition, 2016
- Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, 2018
- Certified Gluten Practitioner, Dr. Tom O'Brien, 2018
Functional Diagnostic Nutrition™ (FDN) is a holistic approach that works to seek out, identify and correct the underlying causes and conditions that lead to a person’s main health complaints.
As a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Practitioner, I use functional laboratory tests to find hidden internal stressors and their root causes. With this step-by-step method I can assess the functions and pathways of the Hormone, Immune, Digestion, and Detoxification systems.