Hi, I’m Emily, your Integrative Health Practitioner.
You may also know me as NurseAcne on social media, but I think it’s time for a formal introduction.
I obtained my undergraduate degree in Nursing in 2018, and have been working as a Registered Nurse for the last 7 years! Throughout this time, I have gained infinite amounts of clinical knowledge and insight while working in the hospital setting. I have treated many patients with chronic diseases, cancer diagnoses, and have guided them through end-of-life care. However, the longer I spent at the bedside, the more I questioned, “Is this really it?”
In conventional medicine, we are taught to help people through an acute crisis, and ideally get them well enough to send them back home to their “normal” life. I was recognizing a pattern though, that many people were having a hard time healing from their acute illnesses due to their laundry list of underlying chronic illnesses. The flu is harder to beat when you have underlying diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, and COPD.
At the same time, around the start of the pandemic I started to experience my own health issues. I was suddenly dealing with cystic, painful acne that was getting worse by the day. I first went to my gynecologist, who recommended we switch my oral birth control to an IUD. Truthfully, my “hormonal” acne only got worse after switching. We then made the decision to revert back to a form of low-dose oral birth control. Alongside this switch, I also started cleaning up my lifestyle. I was drinking less, lifting weights more, and eating as “clean” as possible.
However, no matter what I did, my acne only got worse. It was at this time I started seeing a Nurse Practitioner and dermatologist. We tried a combination of doxycycline (in case the acne was bacterial), and spironolactone (in case it was hormonal). Despite their best efforts, not only did my acne not clear, but I now had a host of other issues, including stomach upset, and blood pressure so low that I was dizzy every time I stood up.
After 2 years of experiencing no true change in my acne, I was officially a candidate for Accutane. I was desperate to do anything to clear my skin. It was not only painful, but for anyone that has experienced acne, you know it is also deeply emotionally distressing. I completed a round of Accutane over the course of 8 months. During that time I experienced horrible side effects including depression, dry flaky skin, daily nose bleeds, and debilitating joint pain.
At the end of 8 months however, my skin was finally clear! I was so happy with the results, and felt like all of the side effects I had experienced during those 8 months was truly worth it. Unfortunately, this excitement lasted only a few months before my acne started to come back with a vengeance. I was incredibly frustrated, and felt like I was hitting rock bottom with my skin all over again. I went back on spironolactone at a higher dose to control my acne. It helped, however, I was still having breakthrough acne despite being on the highest dose possible.
It was at this time I really started to do my own research on gut health, seed cycling/cycle syncing for hormonal acne, and functional medicine. I was also listening to Mari Llewellyn’s podcast, “The Pursuit of Wellness” weekly, trying to glean as much insight from the health experts she interviewed as I could. Mari was also going through a similar acne journey at the time, and she opened up about getting functional lab testing with a practitioner. It was not by chance, that I happened upon her episode with Emily Marrow when I did. I was working as an endocrinology nurse at a clinic in NYC, very unfulfilled in my job, and still dealing with chronic acne, when I turned on Mari’s weekly podcast while on my lunch break. Her episode with Emily changed my life. Emily Marrow is an Integrative Health Practitioner, who was helping Mari get to the root cause of her acne through functional lab testing, and something clicked when I listed to her speak. No doctor had ever done a deep dive on my labs to understand why I was experiencing acne. No one was looking at the bigger picture, we were just treating the topical signs of acne, not addressing why it was there in the first place.
I decided that day to work with an Integrative Health Practitioner to get to the root of my acne, but I also made a shift in my career. I didn’t just want to clear my own acne, I wanted to help others do the same! I was finally learning that acne was a symptoms of imbalances in the body, caused by stress, underlying toxins, blood sugar dysregulation, an overburdened liver, and a stagnant lymphatic system to name a few. I started course work to become an Integrative Health Practitioner, and have since become certified in Level 1 and Level 2, and am now able to help my own clients get to the root cause of their health issues!
If you have experienced chronic acne, hormonal problems like PCOS, PMS or missed periods, thyroid dysfunction, or gut issues, I am here to help! I know how frustrating it can be to either be dismissed by doctors, or to try every medication given to you, just for it not to work. There is always an underlying reason for your symptoms, and our body will tell us that story through functional lab testing.
If you are looking to finally get to the root cause of your symptoms like I was, book a consultation with me today- I look forward to helping you find your way back to health!
With love,
Emily