I couldn’t get the words out of my head.
I heard them every time I stepped out of bed and felt the inflammation in my feet.
I heard them every time I accidentally ate gluten.
every time I felt like I’d never be able to stick with this.
“If you stay on that medication, it’s going to kill you.”
That’s what the first functional medicine doctor I ever saw said to me.
I was 24. Had read one book about holistic health – Spontaneous Healing by Dr. Andrew Weil, and I wasn’t quite so sure the whole thing was worth never eating Whataburger again.
I knew I didn’t want to be on medication for the rest of my life.
And I knew that’s all my rheumatologist had to offer me.
So if I wanted something different, I had to go look somewhere else.
What I didn’t know was that I had it all backwards.
It’s not the patient’s job to choose a side.
It’s the practitioner’s job to play (and play nicely) on the patient’s team.
And what I found was not all want to play nicely with others on the team, which can make the whole merging the conventional and holistic approaches harder than it needs to be.
I think a lot about how that first appointment could have gone….
What if instead the convo went something more like this…
Medications are part of the healing process.
Taking them does not mean…
❌ you’re stuck
❌ it’s forever
❌ you’re weak
They can be the thing that…
✅ stabilizes you
✅ brings down inflammation
✅ helps you to regain function
✅ get your mind back
✅ feel like yourself again
so that…
you can do the things you need to do take your health back.
☝️☝️☝️
That part right there, that’s the part I really needed.
Take advantage of all that modern medicine has to offer.
Just don’t stop there.
From there support your body to be able to best handle the medication.
That means…
THING 1:
Supporting your detox system (ie. making sure you’re pooping daily, sweating, drinking lots of water, eating fiber and minimizing toxin exposure in other things like alcohol, caffeine, pesticides, etc.)
THING 2:
Considering how the body processes it and what nutrients it may deplete (ie. statins use up a lot of CoQ10 – an essential nutrient for mitochondrial heath (energy). And either supplementing or ensuring adequate supply in the diet.
Use it for what it’s there for — to help you FEEL BETTER.
And from that place — where you feel like yourself again — you can actually do the things to turn your health around.
Cause let’s be real, it’s a heck of a lot harder to get out of a hole by yourself.
Sometimes we need a ladder to help pull us out.
Sometimes we need a hand too.
That’s where I come in.
As a functional health coach I help folks who are dealing with things like chronic pain, arthritis, reflux, IBS, high cholesterol, diabetes, autoimmunity, cancer, and are looking for that extra layer of support you can’t get at the doctor’s office.
My practice is currently full with a couple spots opening up in a month. Want to know how I can help you specifically?
Book a chat with me here.
P.S. Moral of the story: I’ll never tell you to stop using something that’s improving your quality of life. What I will help you do is improve your health so perhaps one day you won’t need it. My functional health coaching practice currently has a waitlist with a couple spots opening up in a month. Want to know how I can help you specifically?
Book a chat with me here.
Megan Adams Brown, CHC, is a certified health coach based in Austin, Texas. Megan helps people take charge of their health and make “healthy” not feel so high maintenance. The content in this email is for educational and informational purposes only and is not medical advice.
