Professionally, I've worked in nutrition research, weight loss and nutrition counseling, public health and public outreach, environmental science, and holistic healing. My formal education is a B.S. in Nutrition Science from the University of California at Davis -- still one of the top nutrition and public health schools around. But that wasn't where it all started.
At age 17, I dog-eared an old copy of Look Younger, Live Longer (1950) by Gayelord Hauser -- one of the early anti-aging pioneers. The term "anti-aging" didn't yet exist in the early 70's but Hauser was already onto certain "super foods" that he recommended for better health. This was quite radical in the 1970's. I was pregnant with my son at the time, and wanted to help him be healthier in utero. I also studied and experimented with herbs before embarking on the scientific program at UC Davis, wanting to learn all I could about how food helped us.
But my own journey of personal healing has increased my knowledge and faith, profoundly, in the power of nutrition and self-care in recovering health. Eight years ago, I became trapped in the medical system for five years (with medications) for a chronic nerve pain. My way out was to get back to my roots of nutrition science, and start using food as medicine, along with other basic and natural strategies for health. I researched and experimented my way back! As a result, I know how the medical system works -- and how it doesn't work. (I still find it necessary and useful, however, but insist on using doctors who practice functional and integrative medicine.)
It's no wonder then that my professional and personal health interests have melded, to include:
- anti-aging medicine, of all kinds
- chronic illness (eg. fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, autoimmune disorders, adrenal fatigue)
- amino acids used therapeutically
- vitamins and minerals used to their full advantage
- food and nutrition used as "medicine"
- enzymes, digestive and systemic
- balanced hormones, at any age
- adrenal-thyroid relationship
- healing the gut from antibiotic use
- self-knowledge related to health
- being a co-partner in seeking any health advice
Some of my early nutrition work included: weight loss counseling with body fat measurement and behavioral modification, research on hypertension (high blood pressure) and dietary changes (through the National Institutes of Health), and researching breast milk changes related to diet.
For for the next 20 years I was essentially a science and health writer -- first as an environmental and public health specialist and later in public outreach and education. Sandwiched in and amongst those two was a return to, and expansion of, my early holistic healing roots -- massage therapy, aromatherapy, Ayurvedic medicine, acupuncture, sound therapy, energetic healing, meditation, yoga, supplements of all kinds, and visual imagery.
Some of my most profound training in health and healing has been with several shamanic teachers, including a native Huichol shaman from Mexico and a Peruvian shaman. From them, I learned about the the body's vast capability to heal, even against all odds.
At heart, I consider myself to be a nutrition and health educator, using whatever modalities are appropriate and necessary. I draw upon all available resources in a very practical way -- using scientific principles and knowledge to their greatest extent, within the context of natural and even "easy" remedies.
If you'd like more information, or help with any nutrition or health concern, please feel free to contact me at: asonora@cal.net
