Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Hurst.
Ashley, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My journey really began with my own battle with autoimmune disease. I was diagnosed with a life-threatening autoimmune disease in May of 2011 that began to change so many things in my life. As an athlete and nutrition student I struggled to understand why my healthy behaviors didn’t seem to have help my own health despite what my text books said. However, I also understood that nutrition and environmental inputs undoubtedly played a role in development of my illness contrary to what I was being told by health professionals. Recognizing that the path leading to surgery, chemotherapy drugs and long term maintenance drugs were not the only options I wanted to have, I began to investigate other therapies. My curiosity drove me to my own personal research which eventually lead to getting my masters in functional medicine nutrition. My experience in my online master’s program gave me access to incredibly rich learning opportunities as students and professors were from a variety of other health professions around the world. I also sought out mentorship from a few of the leaders in gastrointestinal research and treatment. Both of these opportunities have enabled my insights in practice to be guided by current research and what can be found in nature. I’ve feel so incredibly thankful for the opportunity my illness brought me. Although I’ve had some tough moments, I’ve gained so much more in being able to help others with Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis and a variety of chronic autoimmune diseases. Seeing their breakthroughs and improvements has been so rewarding!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s always a struggle when you love what you do to maintain your own balanced healthy life. Balance certainly goes beyond eating nourishing foods. Getting enough sleep and taking time off is really crucial for all of us to recover! I try to limit staying up until 1 am answering emails and doing all the other things running a business requires- because at the end of the day they depend on a healthy version of me to keep them going!
Wellness by Design – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
In general my practice is different because I work from a Functional Medicine perspective. Functional medicine nutrition is all about getting to the root causes of illness and treating from the root up. In each treatment plan we focus on using what can be found in nature and validated by research to treat root issues. I specialize in autoimmunity and specifically the gastrointestinal dysfunction that leads to it. I work with mostly a variety of gastrointestinal conditions- Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Eosinophilic Esophagitis and IBS. However, I also work with Autism, ADHD, Multiple Sclerosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis.
I am most proud of my client success stories. I’ve seen clients with inflammatory bowel disease who cannot gain weight and are not very responsive to medications go into complete remission and maintain it alongside other medications or using the nutrition treatment plan alone. I’ve seen clients in extreme pain with rheumatoid arthritis finally get to remission and are able to sign up for a race they had always wanted to run. I’ve also seem clients with multiple sclerosis who come in a wheel chair and in six weeks are walking around. These kinds of breakthroughs are happening regularly for people from all backgrounds- which is why the functional medicine field has grown so much in the last few years. It’s such an exciting time to be a part of an emerging change in health care.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Growth and keeping business going through the tough times! My first year went well, but my second year in practice was very difficult as I was still finishing my master’s program and growing a business. My third year has been surprisingly busy and I’ve been so thankful to get to work with so many wonderful people.
Contact Info:
- Address: 15200 Southwest Fwy Suite 266 Sugarland, TX 77478
- Website: www.wellnessbydesignonline.com
- Phone: 8327954868
- Email: foodpowered@gmail.con
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