Functional Medicine and Me

My Journey of Healing into becoming the best version of Me

A large quantum of my life- 32 years to be precise, was mostly spent in living a life based solely on the society’s paradigm of an ideal life. With only one kink in the armour — the stern voice of my conscience; “Why do I feel like everything is fake?”

But these thoughts were so scary, I would squash them before they could form completely. However, my Conscience would not be silenced until I finally allowed it to surface and show me the truth of my life. Accepting it took a lot of strength but, it felt like a boulder had been lifted off my shoulders — the struggle and dissonance did not vanish magically, but it became a little more bearable.

I developed a single minded focus- To live a life based on Truth

Now that I had taken the monumental first step of acceptance, I jumped to the next one- a brutal, ruthless self assessment of my life

I was 97 kg and really, Really sick. I suffered from loss of energy, mood swings, and depression. And it could all be seen on my skin and hair; I had eczema on my left leg that would bleed a lot, and was plagued with infections that spread from the calf to the knee of my left leg. Pain had become my everyday companion.

This list intimidated me but I was determined. I knew what I wanted. I started making minuscule changes in my life. It was arduous.

I started trying out different diets and exercise regimes. I started a ketogenic diet. This brought on a new problem — energy crashes and constipation; To counter it I turned to probiotics.

Probiotics from fermented beverages like Kefir and Kombuaha did help me restore my energy temporarily. But each day the life of this restored energy kept decreasing, making me increase the quantity of caffeine consumption. Caffeine is everyone’s solution to low energy right? It came to such a point that I couldn’t go through a day without caffeine.

But the Universe always intervenes and gives you a chance to make amends.

By 2017, I had taken steps to take control of my life. I had walked out of a draining relationship, relocated back to India with my daughter and set up a small business called Gut Instincts in Pune. Here I would make fermented beverages and sell them whilst surviving on caffeine. That’s when I received my wake up call.

That day is still clearly etched in my memory.

I had literally had eight cups of tea that day only to crash around 8 in the evening. Dinner time had come and passed, I oh so distinctly remember my tiny little daughter trying to wake me up just so she could have some dinner, but I was unconscious to the world around me, in a death like sleep, feeling utterly helpless.

The memory of that incident still shakes me up. I realised I had come to a standstill in terms of my health. I had only succeeded in replacing one addiction with another.

But I had chosen the path of truth and a truth seeker always looks for answers. So that’s what I did.

That’s when I came across Functional Medicine.

I don’t really remember how I came across it, maybe a friend sent me a link or it was recommended on YouTube, don’t know. It was a TED talk by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, where he talked about how one can make disease disappear. It was barely 10 minutes long but it opened my entire worldview of functional medicine/ functional nutrition.

The underlying premise of Functional Nutrition is that you get your blood work done and find what’s the main reason for your health problems. And in turn, start resolving those issues. In the video, Dr. Chatterjee had assured that treating the root cause will automatically cure all symptoms related to it, restore energy and help in losing the excess weight.

I was dazzled.

I dove deep into the world of Functional Medicine.

My very first intersection with a Functional Medicine practitioner in India was disappointing to say the least but this just pushed me to study on that subject more. I read dozens of books related to it, followed the Institute of Functional Medicine obsessively, learning all its secrets. The best thing happened when I stumbled across the cheat sheet for optimal ranges that Functional Medicine practitioners used.

I redid my blood work and learned what was actually wrong with me. I had an Autoimmune thyroid condition called Hashimotos,Insulin Resistance and though I was not a full blown diabetic, my blood sugar levels were fluctuating a lot which is why I was having energy crashes. All in all I was ridden with multiple deficiencies and inflammation. And of course, due to stress, my adrenal function was messed up as well.

Now that Functional Medicine had helped me understand my issues I turned back to it for the solutions too. I researched and learnt how to use information from my blood work to work out solutions.I finally learnt how Food was my medicine, I started eating the things my body needed. I ordered the supplements I needed to fix my deficiencies and made changes to my lifestyle parallelly.

To my surprise, my health completely turned around in less than 2 months.

I went from being riddled with multiple health problems to suddenly feeling on top of the world. I am now the best version of myself. At 43 I can do things that none of my versions could have ever dreamt of doing; namely:

• Having more energy throughout the day than the 20 yr olds in my Team
• Looking younger than I did 10 years ago
• Winning and completing the Oxfam 100 km trailwalker in less than 26 hours
• Reaching new heights in strength training everyday
• The flexibility and suppleness of a teen
• Superpower level of resilience to viruses and bacteria. I rarely am sick for more than a day
• I experience tremendous levels of clarity on a daily basis thanks to the emotional and mental stability I now have
• As the CEO of iThrive I get to heal 1000’s of people from their chronic illnesses
• I live a life where I fulfill my Divine Purpose with every single breath I take

From hating myself and everything my life represented to waking up every single day to a life filled with love and light is my journey of healing.