From Nearly Dead To Organic Power Woman – How Olivia Found Solace In Chinese Medicine
At just 16 years old, Olivia Amitrano’s health was already in shambles.After hitting a ” health rock-bottom” in her senior year of high school, Olivia became determined for a new shot at life.
. With an ignited conviction to take back her health once and for all, Olivia would eventually attain a quality of life like she never could have imagined, creating a natural-health empire that would inspire a generation of young women and health advocates alike. This is her story. Like so many others, Olivia’s childhood had bred a profusion of insecurities and emotional damage coming into her teenage years. “My struggle throughout my life was food, weight, self-love, and happiness. When I was young, I just didn’t fit in with the other kids. I was weird. I liked to play instruments, watch the Twilight Zone and build villages out of aluminum foil.” To make matters worse, Olivia’s diet was inundated in sugar and processed foods, a reflection of her own parent’s eating habits. Needless to say, food quickly became her vice. “All I could think about was the next time I could get my hands on some instant satisfaction in the form of food. My mom’s friends would tell me that I should ‘stop eating bagels because they had 500 calories’ but I was addicted and so were my parents, who were both very overweight. All we knew as a family was binge eating.” In her early teens, Olivia began attending Weight Watchers classes with her mother, igniting an insistent obsession with calorie counting. Soon after, while searching ‘the web, Olivia came across a ‘pro-anorexia” website that talked-up the benefits of extreme calorie restriction, instilling a distorted view of what ‘healthy’ looked like in Olivia’s eyes. “Soon I had my routine down pact: one sugar free Popsicle for breakfast, TONS of diet soda and a pack of gum for lunch, followed by a 200 calorie soy burger for dinner. Of course, I couldn’t restrict for very long until I binged again, although my weight significantly dropped and I was getting a lot more attention. That attention fed my eating disorder, along with the notion taught to me by society and the media: that my self-worth was based SOLELY on how I looked. During 11th grade, Olivia’s mother was talked into the benefits of the Gardasil vaccine, who pressured Olivia to get the shot right away. This was long before Gardasil had become the villain of vaccines, Olivia notes. Soon after her injection, Olivia began experiencing unwelcome side effects. “Although I didn’t know it at the time, my body and liver were severely overloaded with heavy metals. I began sleeping way too long at night and never feeling rested, forgetting everything, suffering from cystic acne ALL OVER my face and back which had never happened before. Pretty soon the stomach spasms began – some days I was curled in bed for hours writhing in pain from what doctors told me was simply ‘Irritable Bowel Syndrome’ which had ‘no cause.'” In the months that followed her Gardasil injection, Olivia experienced fluctuating anxiety, depression, and mood swings. Next, she was prescribed a disastrous pharmaceutical cocktail, including anxiety meds, IBS pills, and a 4 month long antibiotic run for her acne. But as Olivia soon discovered, rather than making her feel better, the drugs only seemed to be turning her into a walking zombie.
Then one morning, while looking at her worn reflection in the mirror, an epiphany came about. Olivia was ready to make a decision, one that saw her finally living at her fullest and healthiest potential. “I didn’t want to be stuck in this cycle anymore. Pills didn’t work. Antidepressants didn’t work. I felt like a zombie with no emotion. I was not getting the full truth.
There had to be another way because I wasn’t going to accept that this was all there was to life.“ From here, Olivia read everything she could about diet and nutrition, becoming inspired by the personal stories of others who had cured depression through food alone. She sifted through book after book, documentary after documentary all while making small, gradual changes to her diet wherever she could. “I just decided to love myself again,” Olivia said. Olivia’s adverse reaction to birth control. Healing through food became the main interest in Olivia’s life, sparking her decision to pursue post-secondary studies based around natural health. But half-way through her first busy school year, the stress began to have a direct impact on her body. She became sick, but not just any common-cold kind of sick. “I developed a huge cyst on my groin that turned purple and began to puss.
The lymph nodes under my arms began to develop cysts as well, because my blood was so toxic and polluted. My stomach problems were worse than EVER, even though I was still taking all of my prescriptions. My acne was going through a serious flare up on my forehead and back. I had a low grade fever and migraines every day morning to night, and my vision was blurry. I almost collapsed in the shower, so my mom finally took me to the doctor.” With forced persistence, Olivia’s doctor persuaded her to go on birth control as a means to battle her chronic fatigue. Within 48 hours, Olivia was in the emergency with erythema nodosum nodes (a severe inflammatory condition) all over her legs. Not surprisingly, doctors and nurses continued to ignore a detox protocol, and instead placed band-aids over her symptoms, putting her on another round of antibiotics. But after her skin became flushed with a yellow hue, a test came back positive for an Epstein Barr viral infection, causing her doctor to immediately retract the useless antibiotics. Olivia today; pegged as ‘Organic Olivia’. Her natural health blog and social media pages are gaining widespread attention for her easy to understand information and relatable personality. At this point, Olivia shut the door on conventional medicine, and instead turned to a Chinese herbalist for answers. It soon was revealed to Olivia that she had been suffering from severe viral, parasitic, and yeast infections, which had almost destroyed her liver. To counteract the damage that had been done, Olivia’s herbalist put her on a herbal tea flush, which to her surprise started to show results within a week. Here nodes and cysts began shrinking, and she was able to digest food again. From here, Olivia buried herself in traditional Chinese medicine, learning about yin and yang, meridians and organ systems, as well as the healing power of herbs. She was now hooked, wanting to know everything she could about natural medicine, parasitic infections, juice cleanses, and more. Through obtaining vital knowledge, Olivia had regained the power she had been searching for since childhood. Today, Olivia’s past stands as the spark for her passion to help others, teaming up with a friend and herbalist named Lily to launch a line of herbal parasitic cleanse products for those in need. “As of today, I’m dreaming bigger than ever. I’m planning to launch an IndieGogo campaign to expand my workspace and get professional machinery to make the herbal parasite cleanses. Lily and I will also be making several other herbal remedies that we feel would help a myriad of different symptoms people face in our modern world. And of course, I will always be writing articles on my website and Instagram that will hopefully get people thinking and motivated to live healthier than ever. I didn’t become a doctor, but I found a way to help people that resonates with me deeply.” Olivia’s story is a perfect example of what it means to be a #changemaker. Going against the conventional grain is never an easy task, but we commend her for taking the reigns and taking back her power. For all things organic and natural, including beauty supply recipes, parasite cleanse programs and more, be sure to check out Olivia’s natural health blog at OrganicOlivia.com, or follow her on Instagram or Facebook. Olivia has recently joined CE’s team of writers as well, so be sure to browse through her articles HERE. Do you know of anyone with an inspiring story who is making a difference in the world? We’re looking for #changemakers from all across the globe, whose incredible stories deserve a bit of spotlight. If this sounds like you or anyone you know, email us their story at changemaker@collective-evolution.com. Much love! .
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