Tenacity (adj.) the quality of being very determined, persistent, and unwilling to give up, even when facing difficult challenges, setbacks, or opposition.
Sounds admirable right? You might think unworthy of a ‘toxic’ title. Might even think, here we go, here’s her ‘humblebrag’ bit. But it’s both. I mean, my super-power & my kryptonite. I have an almost pathological inability to stop pulling at loose threads once something doesn’t make sense. And SO many things in nutrition, naturopathy, mainstream medicine et al don’t make sense!
I can’t leave inconsistencies alone.
Can’t ignore the gap between what’s confidently repeated and what’s actually evidenced. Can’t keep quiet when our profession starts mistaking certainty for understanding, trends for progress, or louder voices for truths.
It’s exhausting! Potentially annoying. Definitely not always ‘brand-friendly’. Think for a moment about all the ramifications – the full fallout- of never being able to let the things that matter (in medicine, in nutrition, in health) slide. And while you’re humouring me with that I’ll just scattergun some headline-highlights that may help to illustrate my point. Speaking out about questionable business ethics, mis & disinformation about products & services has had me blacklisted by numerous companies across my career. Side note, I had to laugh when one ran a whole conference in my area of expertise but didn’t invite me to speak, however, according to several accounts, many of their speakers openly referenced me! 😆 And recently I heard about a particular governance role related to supplements sold in Australia and when I mentioned I might be interested, the individual sharing this with me replied, ‘That’ll never happen! Your reputation proceeds you! They think you’re anti-them!’ Um…. ouch & wow! 😶
But of course, outside of my early career when I worked for a couple of companies, I’m not doing this for them.
I am doing it for me.
Because I am passionate about naturopathy, nutrition, integrative health & all the potential these hold when practiced well and untruths, partial truths, myths & misunderstandings lie across our path, obstructing us from attaining that. Oh and I am a total science-nerd!!! These are the real reasons I’ve spent decades asking questions others didn’t/couldn’t/wouldn’t/’shouldn’t’ – about whether ‘new’ always means ‘improved’ (forms, delivery technology, protocols etc), about whether the doses recommended deliver results or just more sales, about what amounts to truly integrative pathology interpretation, and especially the incredibly tricky task of trying to assess nutrient status of individuals, via any medium (blood, urine, hair, skin – take your pick!) I have unpicked assumptions about aetiology (Gilbert’s Syndrome being not-so-benign after all, up to 50% IBS being B.A.D. & the high histamine hysteria that feels like it could be here to stay etc) And I have made plenty of mistakes and missteps when I thought I understood something – only later to know better! But I have always tried to be open about those and own that – I’m thinking pyrroles & Zn dosing for a start! Always asking myself, as much as anyone else, about all the quiet little leaps of logic hiding inside the increasingly unwell ‘wellness culture’.
But, however, and (one of my favourite little sayings) I get push-back from practitioners who just want it all to be easier.
Who desperately want to subscribe instead to someone selling certainty over the inherent complexity that is all things holistic health!
And to those who don’t & won’t make us all feel uncomfortable in the unknowns of it all.
I get it. Really I do. I’d leave (and leave it alone) if I could! And you know, the irony is, something that’s only literally just occurred to me in this moment (!!), my dad had a series of sayings that he repeated over and over again to me & it totally gave me the S H 1 T s’s (that’s one of his 😂) and probably his top pick was this: “Persistency – do you hear that Rachel Jane? Persist and see!” Oh boy I miss his maddening catchcries…turns out, he got me good – and yes I mean that both ways 😥
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, I’m not trying to be difficult – it just is difficult.
And my goal isn’t to make things more complicated – it’s simply to make us all, and our medicines, more successful, more often.
Persist & see! X