Why I Became a Registered Holistic Nutritionist
I love being a Registered Massage Therapist, and I have been since 2004. It is an extremely gratifying occupation to have. It is rare to have a patient be upset with me at the end of their treatment. However, after 20 years, and maybe even a bit before this timeline, I realized massage is only one of the many modalities & components that facilitate in achieving “optimal’ health. Massage treatment can be limited, and its intended outcomes can be temporary. I was beginning to understand why the “burnout” rate for RMT’s was so high. The job was physically demanding on the therapist, the demand and need for the occupation was high, and the intended outcomes were limited. I wanted to be able to offer my patient’s more, something that could last longer than a few weeks. I wanted to gift them the tools and the “know how” to make better decisions about their health. I wanted their decisions to lead to greater and longer lasting impact on their health. I wanted to help empower them, and let them know that their health outcomes are their responsibility and they can feel as good as they want to feel, by applying nutritional tools and knowledge that would help them achieve their health goals.
Hippocrates was noted for saying “Let food be they medicine and medicine be thy food”, and Thomas Edison, stated “The Doctor’s of the feature will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with NUTRITION” This got me thinking, If the disease process is often associated with, or caused by our dietary choices, and EVERY day, on an average of 3 times per day, we choose what we eat, then what we choose, could be the best approach to prevent or reverse dis- ease. It then made sense for me to look into studying NUTRITION, so that I may educate my patient’s on how to make healthy food choices that could assist in disease prevention and maybe even dis-ease reversal, and to help them achieve optimal health outcome's. We all need nourishment to survive, and that nourishment comes from the foods we eat. We all need to eat!
Often, we think of food and nutrition from the standpoint of the “diet” mentality. Meaning, we focus on calories, and count calories taken in, verses calories worked out. Or we think of food as just providing us with energy to feul our day. Food and what we choose to eat is much more than that. Food is nourishment, food is NUTRITION. It is messaging that impacts our thoughts, moods, feelings & behaviours. Nutrient’s act as neurotransmitter’s creating signals (communication) across a neuro synapse from one cell to another.
Nutrition influences physiological sequences and outcomes in the body that affect our heart rate, circulation, blood pressure, digestion, detoxification, and hormone synthesis. Nourishment is restoration & repair, as well as the building blocks for muscle, bone, joints, tendons & ligaments.
Making good nutritional choices can reduce/prevent inflammation, eliminate metabolic disease, as well as prevent & eliminate autoimmune disease, some allergies, food intolerance, & sensitivities and most chronic illnesses. Studying Nutrition seemed monumental and foundational in being able to provide and care for my patient’s in more ways than just through massage. So I enrolled in the Registered Holistic Nutrition program, at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition.
Little did I know, that what I was about to embark upon was going to blow my mind wide open. What I thought I had known about Nutrition was a speck of sand, compared to what I was about to be introduced to. Just as suspected “Food truly is medicine” and I was about to learn how to utilize it as such….. More on this in my next blog. Please stay tuned for future informative & insightful blog’s, to be posted to the website on a monthly basis.
Always Appreciated
Alyssa Doherty RMT, RHN & CGP