Good day my friends and family!
Thank you for taking a peek at my blog and I hope that you will become a frequent follower and that I can write things that interest all of us.
Today I want to explain a little bit about myself and why I created this space. I've always had an interest in health and what creates health as well as how to prevent disease. When I was growing up, in my birthplace of Bronx, New York I presented a short topic in our elementary health class and since then I went from playing a musical instrument and being active in Ballet and Tap Dance to playing sports and becoming more health conscious but not to the degree I am now. My dad grew up on 100-acres of farmland in Jamaica and studied agriculture and my mom was growing up in the citrus groves a few thousand miles up the west central area of Florida. So they both loved fruits and vegetables as the dominant food group in their consumption of food while both loved fish and a few meats. It wasn't until my mom took ill in her later years that I began my search again for health and learned so much, particularly as I became her guardian in her last few years of life. Granted health has always followed me and I've played with it, from sports in high school and college all the way to my military years in the US Navy, 20 to be exact!
As I returned to research into what brings about health, I learned that it comes from many elements combined and no single element represents health solely. Although it is my belief that what we put in our bodies intentionally and unintentionally plays a huge role in our health and ability to grow towards it! Health represents balance in our personal ecosystem from the toxins that break into our personal ecosystem, affecting our mental, spiritual and physical body systems to name a few. I have learned over the years that each human body is unique and while we all require a very similar basic foundation of health, everyone is at different levels of imbalance or balance because of the environmental forces acting on us. Some of us may be deficient in certain vitamins and minerals that others aren't. Which and what foods one person eats and does well with, another person can't consume, or a certain level of a toxin adversely affects one body, but another body may not feel the toxin until much later of saturation point.
All these reasons have caused me to search for health that is above the marginally accepted, or what the health system deems as a certain acceptable level of health. What I am learning is that for non-acute events, or emergency events, we have to be a strong advocate for our own health especially when we are talking about chronic diseases or preventable diseases and not just accept what others have projected, predicted or predetermined for us.
My father had a heart attack when he was in his mid-forties and was one of the first patients to have a quadruple bypass heart surgery (high cholesterol played a role) and outlive 2 wives dying at 83. My mother whom he had divorced, her suffering was with diabetes and high blood pressure. She passed away at the age of 74, and her mother before her died at the age of 54 due to supposedly complications of surgery. Learning and understanding how the aging process doesn't have to include these metabolic/chronic diseases if we take time to learn and understand what represents and brings us to excel in our own health.
in 2017, I noticed that I was experiencing some changes in my health, some I could see and some not. But when doctors and specialists couldn't find the cause I turned to changing what I was exposing myself to, which included my food consumption. This led me to the path of raw vegan, and then to becoming a raw vegan coach and then to studying herbalism and after my 2nd year of studies became a clinical herbalist. Somehow life became full with work, health coaching, part-time teaching and more studying that I began to forget about exercise and so I decided to get that back in my life and eventually because a certified yoga teacher (200 hrs.) and now I'm working on getting registered and currently studying to be a juicing therapist because these things have all been proving to support improving one's health. After so many years in my younger self being active, I lost the understanding of how important exercise is, or having “a movement” practice in my life. It is so important to our health and helps in moving toxins out of our bodies!
So, over my many future blog entries and supporting your desire to improve your health, I want to share with you what I have learned and how I can be of assistance to you in learning more about health and what brings about optimal health together. More on how by learning about your personal ecosystem works and how you can change it for the betterment of your optimal health with a new primary base of food and medicine from the plant kingdom.
To Your Best Health!
Dr. Tee
April 2023
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