Shannon describes healing her gut and overhauling her diet and lifestyle after following a practitioner's plan. She expected changes in nine to 12 months and has now abstained from alcohol for almost eight years. She and Dr. Tabatha Barber discuss why conventional medical training doesn't cover these approaches.
Nine months to 12 months.
Almost eight years.
Emergency department (ER) nurse.
I said, what can you do for me? He said, Shannon, give me nine months to 12 months. You will be a new human. But you've got to believe in this process. You have to do what I say. I can give you all the tools, but it's in your lap. I said, I will do whatever you tell me. He introduced me to gut healing that is forever my love and passion to this day.
Because it shifted everything, right?
Oh, my goodness. I did everything he told me to do. I healed my guts, I cleaned up my diet, I changed lifestyle behaviors. I gave up alcohol. Still, it's been almost eight years. I have not had any alcohol, and that is a huge health gain in my life, for sure.
And as a nurse, did you have a moment of like, wait, why don't I know this? Why didn't I get taught any of this? Why aren't we doing this in the hospitals and in the doctor's offices? Because I remember going through that, that when I was studying functional medicine, and I just. Yeah, I was angry for a little bit.
I was just going to say it brought a lot of irritability. And here I was, an ER nurse, working all different shifts, night shifts, just burning myself right out, living on sugar and coffee and whatever I have to do to stay awake and survive, right? Raising kids and passing the kids off in the shift between my husband and I shift, and. And absolutely, I would go to work, and over time, and I'm watching myself heal and seeing the changes in my life, and I'm like, this is all wrong. What are we doing? That was when I started to know it's time for me to move on.
And I truly believe that is why people are not healing in the medical system. It's not that medications are always bad or things. It's just like, we're not nourishing what's actually really broken, right?
