As a teenager Olivia Lucas was told she had the perfect build to be a model.<\/p>\n
This felt like a compliment but on the inside she was unwell and was eventually diagnosed with Grave\u2019s disease, a thyroid disorder which causes weight loss and other symptoms.<\/p>\n
“I didn\u2019t know I had symptoms because it is all I ever knew. You don\u2019t know what you are feeling, especially when you are 13. You don\u2019t know what\u2019s good or not.<\/p>\n
“I just remember everyone saying how skinny and tall I was and should be a model. My eyes were protruding. Looking back now I was just so sick.”<\/p>\n
Doctors offered her medication, and suggested radioactive iodine treatment, despite reservations over her weight and how her body would react.<\/p>\n
While waiting on the treatment she was told about more natural treatments but undertaking them would have required her to go up to Auckland.<\/p>\n
“My mother\u2019s friend suggested natural therapy and my family are farmers and were like \u2018what is this woo-woo?\u2019.”<\/p>\n
After three months of treatment when she was 16 years old, her condition was cured, and she has not had any relapses since.<\/p>\n
It was this rocky start to her teenage years that inspired Miss Lucas to study natural medicine and open her own business “Holistic House” in W\u0101naka in October.<\/p>\n
Having studied a bachelor of science, majoring in natural medicine, Miss Lucas works with pathology while combining natural herbs and treatments.<\/p>\n
The basis of her practice is to look at her clients as a whole person, including their habits, hobbies and lifestyle, and work out a treatment plan, rather than concentrating on symptoms of sickness.<\/p>\n
“We still look at pathology work and it is very science-based but we also weave it with traditional naturopathic wisdom. If you came to me, I would give you herbs as opposed to medication as well as lifestyle recommendations.<\/p>\n
“There is always a time and a place for Western medicine, and it is definitely needed. Prevention and not cure is how I work and we also need to look at people as a whole and not just the symptoms \u2014 the root cause of why.”<\/p>\n
She also takes reformer Pilates classes outside her daytime work hours, which was also inspired by her Grave\u2019s disease recovery.<\/p>\n
“My bones started breaking when I was 21 and it turned out I had osteopenia. I never had the estrogen to build up my bone density and so I had to do Pilates to build up my bones and muscle and I fell in love with it.”<\/p>\n
Her Pilates skills and training helped pay her university bills and eventually open up the business in W\u0101naka, at the tender age of 26.<\/p>\n
Since opening up her natural medicine practice in W\u0101naka she has found most people in the town have an open mind.<\/p>\n
“I think it used to be conservative but maybe things have changed.”<\/p>\n
She says thyroid issues are very common, both underactive and overactive thyroid conditions. This is because the modern lifestyle can bring stress, trauma and poor diet.<\/p>\n
Despite having been open for only eight months, Miss Lucas is looking to employ more staff.<\/p>\n
“It is exciting \u2014 it means I am growing.”<\/p>\n
With the natural medicine industry becoming more popular, especially a spike since the 2020 Covid-19 outbreak, there is plenty of success and help to go around, Miss Lucas says.<\/p>\n
“There are enough people in this town for all naturopaths. We are all doing slightly different things.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a teenager Olivia Lucas was told she had the perfect build to be a model. This felt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4315],"tags":[105,4326,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-166517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-medication","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114645413170103283","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}