Andie’s story
A personal note from Andie Spragg, our Founder:
My story
I’ve always been fascinated by the human body, which is why I studied Human Biology at the University of London Medical Schools. It turns out this qualification has been invaluable in both helping myself, and many others.Since the age of 19 I had gut issues. After having been utterly let down by Doctors, who couldn't help because they're not taught about gut function, I have resolved these issues myself through extensive research. For example, a GP sent me for an investigative barium enema at 19 years old. If the procedure had not been stopped by the reception staff, it’s likely I would have been rendered infertile by the radiation. Or the time I was improperly prescribed medication, or underwent totally unnecessary investigative procedures, or when I was instructed to pay £80/month for probiotics (bought from the consultant’s friend) that I could make at home for free. These are just some examples of my own experiences, and I see more worrying cases around me as family, friends and clients are put on toxic drugs that are unnecessary, aren’t working and may even be making their health worse. Furthermore, I'm aware that certain tests are not complete or appropriate, such as the thyroid tests taken by the NHS don't even test the active form of thyroid hormone. Indeed, clients have told me they've been instructed to take their medication where some simple food additions could have been applied instead!The tipping point for me happened in 2015 and I remember it as though it was yesterday. I was getting a cold every 6 weeks and generally didn’t feel well. I sat crying on the GP’s chair, exhausted, frustrated by being unwell all the time and wanting to know what was wrong with me. The doctor took some bloods. The results were all ‘normal’, for which I am truly grateful, but I knew that wasn’t really the case. The GP showed no understanding and gave me no help. I was fed up with being told that I was fine, when I knew I wasn’t, and I was frightened at just being turned away with no solution and left to get on with it.As I stood up from the GP’s chair, I decided that if the doctor wasn’t going to help me, I’d have to fix myself. I heard a little voice in my head say “you studied at medical school Andie, you have a first-class honours degree in science, it really can’t be that difficult. The effect is that I’m getting sick every 6 weeks, so what is the cause!?” From then on, I set myself on a path to apply my studies and dig deeper. I already had a good knowledge from my degree, and having done extensive research to fix my gut issues because the doctors weren’t able to help me, I was well on my way. It didn’t take long, and now I rarely get sick and never see a doctor.Practice of medicine
As I progress on this journey, I am frustrated by the concepts of health and medicine being used interchangeably. The ‘practice of medicine’ is supposed to be about restoring health and yet it can be the complete opposite. Whilst Doctors are clearly very knowledgeable and have helped many people and saved many lives, I do not always see them actually curing disease or conditions in people. I see them searching for and prescribing a medication, which can make people more sick (*). Whilst some medicine can be quite well targeted and does work, more often it masks, or lessens, symptoms until the body repairs itself, or may be used to manage symptoms for the rest of a person’s life. It often has bad side effects that may even require a cocktail of more medication to counteract them.Medicine should not be the first port of call; it should be a last resort. Yet Doctors are taught to medicate, not to apply their extensive scientific understanding, when combined with the newest research, to get to root causes and remediate illness at its core.What luck!?
For many, wellness is a mystery, or pure luck. When someone doesn’t get sick often, they’re often told they’re lucky. Wellness is neither a mystery, nor luck. It comes down to the fundamental scientific law of cause and effect and the complex interplay of the 12 Pillars of Wellness.As a science graduate myself, I am increasingly concerned when I hear of Doctors (who are fundamentally scientists) treating people without any application of the concept of cause and effect. I regularly hear of Doctors disregarding the actual function of parts of the human body when treating people with medication, which again, ends up making the patient more sick and with added side-effects. For example, a client was prescribed protein pump inhibitors (PPIs) to make their other medication work more effectively. The client already had gut problems. The prescribed PPIs made the client's condition worse by reducing their stomach acid production, which meant they weren’t able to digest their food properly. This therefore impacted their gut health, nutrient absorption and therefore their immune system, general comfort and wellbeing. As soon as we removed the PPIs, the client was able to digest their food and felt better again.Restoring wholeness
Health and wellness mean so many different things to different people and institutions, but I am yet to find anywhere that truly deals with health on a (w)holistic basis, i.e. treating the whole human being, rather than just parts of it, and restoring ‘wholeness’. In addition, there is no separation of mental and physical health; they are inextricably linked and are interdependent. We work closely with Mental Health Getaway on this topic.Furthermore, our western medical world tries to separate out the different organs or functional systems in the body and treat them as though they are completely independent from the rest, or as though any treatment will not affect the rest of the body (as can be seen in the previous client example). In reality, the body is a complex mechanism of interconnected parts sharing the same environment, whether it be the circulating blood, lymphatics, cerebrospinal fluid, endocrine systems, nervous systems or the organs that orchestrate to perform the 37 billion billion reactions that take place in our bodies every single second. So what is seemingly happening in one part of the body, is actually happening to the whole. This can be seen in the wide-spread side-effects when taking medication for one part of you; hence our holistic approach.You’re on your own
More recently, I’m hearing that western medicine Doctors are simply unable to help their patients and send them away, perhaps with a generic label for their condition, without anywhere to turn. I’ve certainly had this experience myself in the past.Who taught you to be well?
Finally, we’re not educated about how to be, and stay, well. We have these incredible bodies bestowed upon us, which are capable of amazing things, but we often abuse them on a daily basis, and then wonder why we get sick. As a result, diseases arise and perpetuate unnecessarily. It pains me to see people unnecessarily sick, and I've sobbed my heart out when I've heard of my peers dying young when I could have potentially helped them.For the long-term
None of these medical approaches and attitudes are a long-term solution to health. Wholistic Wellness Centre is here to address that. Our mission is to connect all the dots, by getting to the underlying cause of a condition (**), to help you to wholistic wellness, i.e. wellness for the whole of you.Next: What is wholistic wellness?
* in some cases, medication is appropriate and necessary. However it is the philosophy of Wholistic Wellness Centre to avoid the use of medication unless it is a last resort or, in certain circumstances, where life depends on chemical intervention, such as in cases of life-threatening cancer. We always apply the same core principals to wellness, alongside any requirement for medical intervention.
** scientific understanding of the human body is still evolving. As a result, Wholistic Wellness Centre cannot guarantee a cure, however where we are unable to fully remediate, we believe our practices of optimisation, education and support will always improve a condition, where the client is willing and able to put into practice the guidance given.