My journey into nursing began with a deeply personal experience—caring for my mother during her battle with terminal cancer at just 58 years old. She had never received the recommended colonoscopy at age 50. Her illness became my driving force to pursue a more proactive, preventative approach to healthcare.
Colon cancer screening is considered secondary prevention, aiming to detect disease before symptoms appear. But I often wonder—what was the true root cause of her cancer? Was it financial stress, generational trauma, environmental exposures, or the cumulative impact of processed foods? How could the cancer have been prevented?
The Foundation: Academic Training Meets Clinical Reality
During my Master’s program at UCLA, I embraced opportunities to explore preventive healthcare. I organized health screenings for fellow students and conducted research on nutritional strategies to prevent osteoporosis. My publication in Sports Medicine on calcium supplementation in adolescents reinforced my belief that true healthcare must address root causes before disease develops. These early experiences affirmed nursing’s powerful role in education, advocacy, and prevention.
My time as an acute care nurse provided invaluable insight into how illness is diagnosed and managed in the conventional system. I worked on a specialized unit for older adults—the Acute Care for Elders (ACE) Unit—where a multidisciplinary team including a pharmacist, geriatrician, clinical nurse specialist, and primary nurse collaboratively rounded on patients. I also served on the hospital’s fall prevention committee.
Despite our best efforts, many patients were readmitted shortly after discharge. I often found myself wondering how these hospitalizations could have been prevented years or decades earlier. The reactive nature of hospital medicine, combined with a toxic “nurses eat their young” culture, stood in stark contrast to my preventative philosophy. Although I mentored new nurses to help shift that culture, the demanding 12-hour shifts and medication-heavy schedules led to burnout—and ultimately, my pursuit of advanced practice.
The Turning Point: Advanced Training and Personal Health Challenges
The Doctor of Nursing Practice program was far from easy. I commuted from Los Angeles to San Diego—no small feat if you're familiar with LA traffic—while working part-time and completing my doctoral project on preventing functional decline in geriatric patients. In my final year, I was pregnant with my first child. Despite these challenges, I graduated with honors and earned dual board certification in Family Practice and Adult-Gerontology.
Still, I found myself questioning the conventional model. How could we conduct thorough assessments in 20-minute visits? Why was there only one hour devoted to complementary medicine in our curriculum, compared to semester-long pharmacology courses? My certification exam focused on drug selection—not on strategies for prevention.
Personal health challenges further reshaped my perspective. After the birth of my second child, I experienced postpartum depression and sought non-pharmaceutical treatments while breastfeeding. When my daughter developed persistent eczema, conventional medicine offered only temporary relief through topical steroids and antihistamines. Despite trying environmental modifications—HEPA filters, clean detergents, gentle skin products—the eczema always returned. One of the last treatment options presented to us was an immunosuppressive drug typically used for cancer. I refused.
Instead, we visited a naturopath in Arizona who explained that our daughter’s gut had been compromised by multiple rounds of antibiotics. She had pneumonia twice, received antibiotics at birth due to suspected sepsis, and had recurring ear infections. Through food sensitivity testing (a service I now offer in my practice) and targeted nutraceuticals, we healed her gut. Today, she is eczema-free.
My husband’s health also pushed me to think differently. At age 30, he developed viral sepsis—a condition likely worsened by chronic stress, processed food, lack of sleep, and dehydration. Despite being treated on the best unit with top clinicians, he left the hospital with lingering symptoms. At the suggestion of a business partner, we tried IV ozone therapy. He showed a 50% improvement almost immediately. Initially skeptical, I later tried the same therapy during a bout of influenza—and experienced a 90% improvement within a day.
The Solution: Personalized, Preventative Medicine
These transformative experiences led me to found Dr. Ozone, where I now serve as Nurse Practitioner Director. Our precision medicine practice focuses on preventative medicine, health optimization, biohacking, longevity, functional medicine, and IV ozone therapy. We are committed to uncovering and addressing the root causes of illness—before symptoms emerge.
My evolution from conventional nurse to functional medicine provider has been both personal and professional. Today’s healthcare system demands more than reactive treatment; it requires a paradigm shift that prioritizes time, individualized tools, and a proactive philosophy to truly prevent disease. Our practice embodies this shift, delivering comprehensive, personalized care.
While conventional medicine certainly has its place—particularly in acute or emergency situations—I’ve seen firsthand that most chronic conditions respond best to a functional approach that considers lifestyle, nutrition, environmental exposures, and emotional well-being.
My mission is simple: to provide the kind of care I wish my mother had received. Care that sees the whole person, not just the disease. Care that aims to prevent illness rather than just manage symptoms. Through a blend of conventional and functional medicine, I strive to help patients reclaim their health—and their lives.
