Protect Health, Prevent Illness® Compassionate Healthcare with Laurie Love

 Laurie Love, MSN, FNP-BC is a woman filled with passion, desire and an extreme amount of knowledge to guide her patients in living full, active and healthy lives.  Her philosophy “ …is to be an active voice and participant in the movement away from the current diseased-oriented model of health care and shift forward to a Functional Medicine approach in treating, curing and preventing chronic illness.”
After recently trademarking her motto – Protect Health, Prevent Illness®, Laurie Love was gracious to set aside some time for an interview so that I may share her passion with our readers.
SJ: How much do our genes play a role in triggering diseases like diabetes, auto-immune dysfunction and gastrointestinal disorder?
LL: Most people are very surprised when I tell them our genetics play a very small role in the development of a chronic illness.  The truth is, over 70 percent of chronic illnesses are a result of our lifestyle choices.  Our genes are not our destiny – just because one’s mother has diabetes doesn’t mean that person is doomed to get diabetes. Often times we feel limited or not in control of our health, but we do have control over our behaviors. I hope to give my patients a sense of empowerment in their health journey when they learn they can control their health risks, and their genetic uniqueness is what makes that health journey different.
SJ: Can you explain what you mean when you refer to our “uniqueness”? When you say this term, do you mean spiritually and emotionally or our physical body?
LL: First, thank you for asking and clarifying because it’s important to understand.  The first thing in taking control of our health is to understand we live in a very challenging environment today. The second thing is to understand we don’t just arrive at “health” and stay there. Maintaining health is a different journey for each of us. When I say our uniqueness, I mean not only the physical health but everything: mind-body-spirit.  Our uniqueness is how our genes interact with the environment and each of us respond differently. Everything we are exposed to in our life, as early as conception in our mother’s womb, plays a part in how our bodies react to health and disease. We want our healthy genes to stay turned on and our unhealthy genes to remain silent.
SJ: How different are the environmental factors we face in 2017 versus let’s say 1990 when I was a kid growing up?
LL: You know it’s often a patient will come in and say to me, “that wasn’t the case when I was a kid.”  And it’s true, our stress level and the quality of our food has changed significantly from just 20 to 30 years ago – and this is the challenge in staying healthy in today’s world.
SJ: We are absolutely in a bigger, faster, go-go-go type of society.  How do we help break away from getting caught up?
LL:  Be mindful of the world we live in today.  Our physical, spiritual, emotional, and mind-body connection all play a role in our health; and we need to take responsibility for how we choose to live in today’s chaotic world. Be mindful of the quality of food we put in our bodies, how much movement we engage in, and the amount of sleep we get.  We also need to seek healthy relationships and value the power of belonging to a community.
As a nation, we have become detached from all of these basic things, and people need to be reminded, supported, and provided the tools.
SJ: So, what does it mean to Protect Health, Prevent Illness®?
LL: My whole goal to Protect Health, Prevent Illness® is to give people the understanding of how their lifestyle behaviors can open the door to illness, offer information on how to protect their health, and provide them with their tools to prevent illness. We look at their individual uniqueness so we can begin to address the underlying factors and imbalances that are causing their symptoms and/or illness. We often do a timeline back to when they first felt unwell; and for some this timeline can go back 15 years or more. One of the first places we look for imbalances is the gut.  It’s where our health begins and it is our only form of communication and connection to the outside world for our body.  Gosh, I could write an entire series on the importance of gastrointestinal health…
And Laurie Love plans to!  Look for next month’s article covering gastrointestinal health in the December issue of The Magazine of Santa Clarita.
Compassionate Healthcare Associates is located at 28212 Kelly Johnson Parkway, Suite 230 in Valencia.  For more information, please call 661-295-7777 and visit www.compassionatehealthcareonline.com.