I have not always been the best example of a healthy person, but I have always cared about my body.
I started using drugs and alcohol pretty young, and over the years I put my body through the absolute wringer. There were periods when I ate well, periods when I barely ate, periods when I exercised, and periods when I did almost nothing good for myself. My body experienced stressor after stressor and, somehow, kept carrying me.
So when I got sober, I made a decision: if my body had worked that hard to keep me alive, I was going to start working just as hard to take care of it.
That decision eventually led me to functional medicine.
When I first started seeing my functional medicine doctor, I was exhausted. I had very low cortisol levels, and there were days when I would wake up only to go right back to sleep. I could sleep most of the day. I wasn’t exercising. I wasn’t getting enough sunlight. I wasn’t participating in life the way I wanted to.
And there was something especially difficult about finally getting sober and then realizing I still didn’t feel good in my own body.
I had done this enormous thing—I had stopped using drugs and alcohol—and yet I didn’t suddenly wake up feeling amazing.
My body needed recovery, too.
My gut was a mess. After years of drugs, alcohol, inconsistent eating, and stress, I felt like my entire system was asking me to pay attention.
And for the first time, I really did.
My doctor worked with me on a protocol based on what was happening in my body, and over time my life began to change. Today, I can wake up around 8:00 in the morning and stay awake and engaged with my life until 9:00 or 10:00 at night.
That may sound completely ordinary to somebody else.
To me, it is extraordinary.
Being awake for my own life is extraordinary.
I’ve now been working with her for quite a while, and my most recent yearly bloodwork looked really good overall. One thing she noticed was some inflammation, so she recommended that I be tested for celiac disease. Some people with celiac disease have subtle or even no obvious gastrointestinal symptoms, so it is something worth investigating rather than guessing about.
And that’s one of the things I have come to appreciate most about taking an active role in my healthcare:
I don’t want to wait until my body is screaming to start listening to it.
I want to know my numbers. I want to ask questions. I want to understand my nutrition. I want to know whether something has changed from last year. I want to understand my bone health and muscle mass as I age. I want to exercise, eat foods that nourish me, get outside, sleep, and pay attention to what my body is telling me.
That doesn’t mean I believe we can prevent every disease.
And it certainly doesn’t mean I would reject medication, surgery, or conventional medicine when I need them. Those things save lives every single day.
What it means is that I don’t want illness to be the first time I become interested in my health.
Functional medicine has helped me look at myself more broadly. Instead of only asking, What hurts?, I have learned to ask:
- How am I sleeping?
- What am I eating?
- Am I moving my body?
- How am I managing stress?
- How is my digestion?
- Am I getting the nutrients I need?
- How do I actually feel?
Becoming vegan also made me much more curious about food and the body. I started thinking more deeply about how nutrition affects energy, digestion, mood, and long-term health. Food stopped being simply something I ate. I became fascinated by what different foods actually provide my body.
That curiosity has spilled over into the way I think about the people I love.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about a younger family member who struggles with concentration and is simply navigating the complicated experience of being a teenager. My instinct isn’t to diagnose him or decide that food or a vitamin deficiency must be responsible. I simply wonder whether looking at the whole picture—with his parents and qualified healthcare professionals involved—might reveal something useful.
Maybe everything is perfectly normal.
Maybe there is something worth addressing.
The important thing is asking.
That’s really the lesson my own body has taught me.
Ask before the scream.
Pay attention before something becomes an emergency.
Get your appropriate screenings. Go to your regular doctor. Ask whether additional testing makes sense for you. Eat nourishing food. Move your body. Learn your family history when you can. Understand what changes as you age. And if you’re interested in functional medicine, research a qualified practitioner and see whether that approach might complement the rest of your healthcare.
I spent years asking my body to survive things it never should have had to survive.
Today, I get to do something different.
I get to care for it.
I get to listen to it.
I get to be curious about it.
I get to nourish it instead of punish it.
And after everything this body has carried me through, taking care of it doesn’t feel like a chore anymore.
It feels like gratitude.
