I had painful, heavy periods and persistent acne. So I turned to the pill, and the doctor prescribed antibiotics and acne cream. Both made no difference (no surprise). Little did I know it was masking the main issue.

My PMS continued to wreak havoc on my system. I was anxious, fatigued and constipated (we’re all friends here). I learned that the pill was shutting down my hormones. Oh heck.

10 months went by, and my skin was getting worse. The pounds were piling on and my period was nowhere to be found. Scary.

I was given a PCOS diagnosis, with recommendations to workout more than ever and reduce the carbs. As a Registered Dietitian, I was already mindful of every mouthful and exercising 3 hours a day. How could a doctor be telling me to workout more and eat less? It made no sense.

Enough was enough. I took matters into my own hands.

So I went back to school to swot up on the basics of biochemistry and became a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P). That’s when I understood that none of the nourishing foods I was eating were helping me. Why? Because my body was in a state of stress. No nutrients were reaching my cells, so my body thought I was starving. The constant fight or flight mode had paused my hormone production, and my thyroid was in turmoil.

I needed to know my body inside out. But how could I really know? The answer was functional testing. This method helped me discover I had nutrient deficiencies, copper imbalance and a parasite.