How the seed of iThrive was sown in my own Journey of Healing

My first encounter with Functional Nutrition was very random.I was looking for solutions to fix my own health issues scouring the internet for answers, Googling, Youtubeing and reading. I still don’t remember exactly how I found it but I came across a 10 minute Ted talk by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee where he spoke on disease reversal through a novel technique — Functional Medicine.I was completely in awe.

He spoke of using data from blood tests to come to a conclusion of what was going on inside the body. He said that any disease could be reversed if one could find the root cause of the disease and apparently these root causes were hidden in plain sight in each person’s blood. How is it that no one was talking about this, not even the best of the best doctors?

Now that I knew there was a system, a methodology to use, I just had to put it in action. I researched about Functional Nutrition and Functional Medicine and with each line that I read I got more and more convinced that this method is going to heal me. Without further ado, I packed both mine and my daughter’s bags and left from Pune to go meet with a specialist in Delhi.

I was like a curious little bunny excited about this vast mysterious world around me that I couldn’t wait to explore. The day of my visit to the doctor I was both excited and apprehensive of what was to come. I got ready, got in the cab and my first step in the hospital was accompanied with heart pounding anxiety and tingling excitement running through my blood streams.

Sitting on the other side of the doctor’s bench made it all disappear. All that was left was the image of my empty bank account and the long, very expensive health program price sheet in front of me. “You can’t put a price on your health,” was what I was told when I was asked to cough out 1.5 lakhs in order to start on my health journey.

Now I had the choice of not going through with it but did I really want to be stuck in the cycle of bad health was the real dilemma.

So, I called up my friends living in different parts of India, telling them exactly what was going on and that I really needed the money to heal myself and God bless them, they readily agreed to help me out. Their existence proved that sometimes that the family that helps you in times of need might not really be the one that you were born into.

I finally got my blood test done and being a post graduate in Nutrition I could discern that the result showed that there were many things wrong with my body. I went for my next consultation with hopes that the professional will give me a clear insight of what is wrong with me and the areas that I will have to work on.

But in reality, all she did was tell me the exact thing that even me with a basic knowledge could discern without going into much detail about it. The only difference was that I was then given a supplement sheet that I had to now include in my diet and were to be sourced from a vendor that only they had the contact to and cost up to 25K.

It turned out to be complete bullshit. There was no difference in my health, all that was different was my bank balance. I was running on empty.

But I was not ready to give up just yet. I decided if no one is helping me, I’ll help myself.

I ordered a dozen or more books and started studying Functional Medicine. I enrolled in courses, stumbled across the optimal range cheat sheet that functional medicine practitioners use to make their diagnosis, and retook my blood work. I compared them, did the algorithms and finally discovered what was the real problem.

I had an autoimmune condition, autoimmune thyroid issue, 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 an overload of toxins. And of course, was stressed

The next step came naturally, study and study more.

I researched and learnt how to use information from my blood work to work out solutions. I started self treating by ordering supplements that I needed, and ironically enough, they were available on Amazon.

The tests and supplements that cost me 1.5 lakhs actually cost not more than 10,000 bucks. That’s when I realized that you know whatever money I paid basically went into a learning lesson but the more I learned The more I understood how Root Causes can impact someone’s health.

Now that I had started working on my health even people who had no trust in me could see definite results in my health and started talking about me again but now in a positive context. One of my friends after seeing my progress came to me with a problem of her own and I healed her using the same technique of getting her blood reports, analysing them and making changes to her diet, fitness routine, sleep cycle and lifestyle.

Healing oneself is a great thing but being able to heal someone else gives you a different perspective altogether. I knew that I didn’t want others looking for a solution to their health problems to face the same problems that I had; not when I can help them. That day I promised myself that I will heal at least 1 million people with the knowledge that I have acquired. And this is how iThrive was born.