Kristen Brown’s interest in functional medicine began even before she knew the name for it. Coming from a family with several members who have Type 2 Diabetes, high cholesterol, and heart disease, she wanted to be proactive and live in better health. This sparked her quest to improve her lifestyle and diet to help prevent these diseases in herself and make positive changes to influence the health of her family.

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[03:08] – After studying a bachelor degree in biology Kristen knew that she wanted to work in the medical field.

[04:37] – Kristen would get frustrated because her clients would come in with multiple diagnoses, wanting to know what to do but Kristen didn’t have the resources time or training in order to help them get better.

[06:00] – After being away on holiday with her husband and children in Costa Rica, Kristen came back to Washington and on Christmas Eve her father hd passed away due to a heart attack and high blood pressure. Kristen, not wanting the same fate, started to research and found the answer… functional medicine.

[06:53] – She then decided to study functional medicine with the Institute for Functional Medicine. Kristen runs her own practice which she loves as she gets to spend quality time with her patients.

[09:38] – Education has really helped shape Kristen to where she is.

[14:42] – A lot of people might feel that it’s a one way conversation or approach when they see a health professional. But Kristen gives feedback, recommendations and direction.

15: – What has fueled Kristen in the past few years is to create the life she wants to live which is to fulfil her passions and help others.

[16:36] – Kristen mentions how the events in her life have led her exactly where she’s meant to be

[17:10] – Kristen realised that she needed to work on being present and not always waiting for next best thing, otherwise it’s never going to happen. One thing she internalises is how am I not present and what do I need to do to get there.

[18:53] – Some tools that Kristen recommends is daily meditation, whether it’s in the form of: prayer, exercise, yoga or a combination of all of those. She also recommends breathing exercise and daily laughter.

Parting words from Kristen Brown

‘When you know better, do better, and if you don’t do better, ask yourself why?’

Useful links

http://althedahealth.com/

Dr Andrew Weil 4:7 Breathing technique
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz4G31LGyog

This episode can be viewed on video here