When the Healer Gets Sick

I was standing in my kitchen, holding a cup of bone broth that I had made from scratch because I know it supports gut lining integrity and reduces inflammation, and I felt terrible. Not metaphorically terrible. Physically, measurably, undeniably terrible.

The irony was thick enough to cut with a knife. Here I was — PhD in functional medicine, board-certified holistic practitioner, the woman who tells other people how to optimize their health — and my own body was staging a revolt.

The Cobbler's Shoes

There is an old saying that the cobbler's children have no shoes. In health and wellness, the equivalent is the practitioner who is so busy helping others that she ignores her own signals. I had been running hard — building a new practice, writing, speaking, traveling — and I had been doing the thing I tell my clients never to do: treating my body like it was optional.

The result was predictable. My cortisol was elevated. My sleep was fragmented. My digestion was off. My energy was in the basement. I was not sick in the way that conventional medicine would recognize — no infection, no disease, no diagnosis. But I was profoundly unwell.

Practicing What I Preach

So I did what I tell my clients to do. I stopped. I assessed. And I treated myself the way I would treat anyone who walked into my practice.

First, I ran a comprehensive functional medicine panel — cortisol mapping, inflammatory markers, nutrient levels, thyroid function, gut health. The results told a clear story: chronic stress had depleted my magnesium and B vitamins, dysregulated my cortisol rhythm, and triggered low-grade systemic inflammation.

Then I built a protocol. Not a dramatic one. A sustainable one. Targeted supplementation for the deficiencies. An anti-inflammatory nutrition plan. Sleep optimization (physician, heal thyself). Stress management practices — meditation, walking, saying no to things I did not have the capacity for.

Holistic medicine is not about rejecting conventional medicine. It is about using every tool available — nutrition, sleep, stress management, supplementation, movement, and yes, pharmaceuticals when needed — to treat the whole person.

What I Learned

The experience taught me three things. First, no one is immune to the effects of chronic stress — not even the people who study it for a living. Second, holistic medicine works. Within six weeks of following my own protocol, my energy was back, my sleep was restored, and my inflammatory markers had normalized. Third, and most importantly: asking for help is not a failure. It is the most holistic thing you can do.

If you are a high-performer who has been running on fumes and telling yourself you are fine — you are probably not fine. And that is okay. The first step is admitting it. The second step is treating yourself with the same care you would give to someone you love.