Where This Began
I spent a significant part of my childhood in and out of hospitals. There was a persistent stomach issue that doctors examined, medicated, and never quite resolved. I remember being small, sitting in waiting rooms, watching the same cycle repeat — tests, prescriptions, temporary relief, return visits.
Then one day, completely by chance, I discovered that eating small pieces of paper from an exercise book stopped the pain. I was just a kid — I had no framework for understanding why. I just knew it worked. And so I kept doing it, quietly, for over a decade.
Looking back, I suspect the paper was providing crude fibre that was doing something the prescribed medications weren't. But the more important thing that experience gave me was a deep, early scepticism of the idea that conventional medicine always has the answer — and a curiosity about what the body might be telling us when we pay closer attention.
I grew up avoiding medication wherever possible. Headaches, flu, minor ailments — I would rather understand what was happening and address the root cause than reach for a pill. Not out of stubbornness, but out of a genuine belief that the body, given the right conditions, is extraordinarily capable of healing itself.
The Experiences That Made This Personal
In August 2024, I lost my father. He passed away from kidney failure — not from the condition he was originally diagnosed with, bullous pemphigoid, but from the cumulative toll of the heavy pharmaceutical protocols used to treat it. Watching that unfold — seeing a man deteriorate under the weight of the very treatments meant to help him — was one of the most painful and instructive experiences of my life.
My mother-in-law lives with Alzheimer's. I was her caregiver for a period of time — a role that demanded everything and taught me even more. It drove me deep into the research on holistic and naturopathic approaches to cognitive health, not as an alternative to medical care, but as a meaningful complement to it.
These are not abstract health topics for me. They are people I love. And that changes how I research, how I write, and what I choose to share.