Today we’d like to introduce you to Leona West’Fox.
Leona, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The path that led me to a successful practice as a Functional Nutritionist and Natural health and natural fertility coach started with my own health journey in my teens. I was very sick for over a year, after visiting a few doctors I accumulated some labels or diagnoses like Chronic fatigue syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Amenorrhea and IBS but no solutions, only painkiller and anti-depressants were offered.
From there, I set on a path to exam my diet, how food acts as medicine and how natural herbal medicine and other integrative health modalities could help my body heal and with every dietary change I made and expansion of natural living, one by one my collection of symptoms evaporated and I began to feel at an optimal health after suffering for well over a year. I realized I had an innate passion and understanding around food as medicine and that set me off on my own personal journey and professional path. Since discovering my passion at the age of 17, I have lived my adult life eating for optimal health, learning and cultivating this lifelong practice.
I also went through my formal education to become a certified clinical nutritionist and herbalist and continue to learn through continued education and through my practice itself, assisting other in healing and balancing their body through food and natural health measures. I specialize in digestive health, autoimmune disorders, women’s health, including natural fertility and long-lasting weight loss. I am trained in functional medicine and Nutrigenomics.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No specific struggles. Now that I am 10 years in my practice, I think just the struggles and twists and turns of life help me understand and better assist my clients. For example, in the last few years, I got married, and went through pregnancy, a hard delivery with major complications and adapting to being a working mom. This firsthand experience has helped me connect with my clients who are at some of these stages of life.
Functional Nutrition Medicine at Lotus Integrative Medicine – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I am a family practitioner, so I work with many different health conditions and goals. But as mentioned I also specialize in working with autoimmune conditions, like Hashimoto’s as well as wide range of gastrointestinal disorders and I specialize in women’s health at every stage and age, as well as fertility.
What sets me apart from other Nutritionists are:
1. I am a functional medicine Nutritionist, this gives me greater training, insight and tools to help people identify, support and make meaningful changes and transformations in their health. It also means I am trained at reading and understanding labs and incorporate and work with some of the top specialty labs in the country to assess for key areas of health, like comprehensive gastrointestinal/microbiome testing, nutritional and toxicity testing, food sensitivity and allergy testing and Nutrigenomic testing.
2. I incorporate Nutrigenomic testing in my practice! This is the future of personalized nutrition, being able to see how we can optimally lose weight, keep it off and prevent disease my discovering how to literally “eat according to our genes.” This is a simple saliva DNA test that provides key insight into the most optimal diet for your genotype.
3. I walk my talk! This is my lifelong passion, I am food positive! I love food both for its powers to strengthen and heal the body as well as for its taste! I am a health and food coach ready to help people transform their health and I have a great track record in helping people make those dramatic health changes which almost always leads to additional positive dramatic life changes.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success is definitely first and foremost, loving what you do, so that your profession is your passion, not just your “job.”
And, second would be the results and trust! Being able to be effective and helping people with their health concerns and goals and assisting them in a way that they felt seen, understood and supported.
Contact Info:
- Address: Lotus Integrative Medicine
2222 Santa Monica Boulevard., Suite 105
Santa Monica, CA 90404 - Website: leonawest.com
- Phone: 310-405-5366
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Leona-West-CN-CH-Functional-Medicine-Nutrition-1450940765162293/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/leona-west-cn-ch-santa-monica
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