Have you ever thought, “I’m going to have to live this way for the rest of my life!”??

I know the feeling... At12 years old, I began to experience frequent intestinal symptoms. By the time I was 16, I had lost my monthly cycle, my pain was nearly constant, and extreme fatigue was my daily life. I removed food after food from my diet but could never pin-point the cause of my symptoms. My mom took me to 11 different doctors over the course of one year only to be left with more questions and be told it was all in my head.

Have you ever thought, “there’s no way I could feel anymore defeated,” and then find out, no, you can… by being told, “maybe it’s in your head.”

We resorted to trying a visit with a naturopath… after a few months, we finally had answers! I had multiple food allergies and hormone imbalances. Seems pretty basic, huh? Well the standard hormone panels were not in depth enough to catch the issues. And for some reason, no one thought to check food allergies. Maybe because it wasn’t as common of a test then? Regardless, it took a naturopath to look deeper.

My allergies lead to leaky gut, intestinal inflammation, poor absorption, and high stress not knowing what was wrong. This all lead to decreased thyroid and female sex hormone production and, therefore, no period! It took the good part of 10-12 years to repair my gut, and throughout that time I decided to become a dietitian.

Before the birth of my first kiddo, I worked in hospitals in the Tampa Bay area. Throughout my time in the hospital setting, I felt like we were always doing damage control. Due to the nature of a hospital setting, there is limited time with each patient. So finding the root cause of the symptoms or diseases was rarely attainable. I felt like I was assisting in putting a quick, Band-Aid fix over the true cause of a patient’s disease before sending them on their way. I grew tired of seeing patients given medication for every little symptom rather than finding sustainable, life-style changes to help improve their quality of life and symptoms whenever possible.

This lead me to pursue training in functional nutrition to help further my knowledge of how to improve health by finding the root cause(s) to target nutrition, lifestyle, and supplement modifications rather than always falling back on medications. There is a place for medication at times, but I feel generally our healthcare system jumps to medicate first rather than as a last resort. After the birth of my son, I decided to pursue a new career… be a stay-at-home mama and start my own nutrition practice!

My goal with Panoramic Nutrition is to pursue the root cause behind the symptoms, knowing that all areas of our lives are intertwined. I provide an individualized approach in searching for and targeting the root cause(s) to know where to go from there. This approach can take time, but it has the potential to be truly life changing!

God Bless and Good Health,

Sarah Nelson, RD/N, LDN, CNSC