Medical Mystery to EMPOWERED HEALING
My Diagnosis Story
I’m a small-town Saskatchewan woman, a farm girl at heart, horse lover, wife, traveler, and nature junkie. I live for good food, wide-open skies, and all things holistic wellness. My friends and family like to call me a holistic-health junkie .. and they might be right! ;)
I’m also the founder and CEO of Unbridled Holistic Health — a functional health practice where I help women balance hormones, heal from burnout, and thrive through chronic illness and autoimmunity. Inside this practice, I use food and lifestyle as medicine alongside insights gained from functional testing to guide women through natural and sustainable root cause healing.
But what most people don’t see, is the chronic illness I carry every single day — an invisible weight that has shaped both my personal life and my professional calling. This career wasn’t just chosen — it evolved through my own health journey.. I’m a passionate believer in holistic, integrative wellness because, I believe it saved my life.
Where it All Began..
My health has been a challenge for as long as I can remember.
Before I was even nine years old, I was battling severe digestive issues that no one could explain.
At fifteen, I was given my first diagnosis: an autoimmune disease.
By eighteen, panic-filled anxiety and dysautonomia consumed my daily life.
By twenty-two, my fertility was impacted.
At twenty-three, I turned to functional nutrition. I was determined to find answers for myself — and for the women like me who had been told their labs were “normal” but who still felt anything but normal.
Through a root cause approach, paired with food and lifestyle as medicine, I started to find balance again. I restored my fertility, healed my gut, eliminated anxiety, and my autoimmune disease went into remission.
It felt like breathing for the first time again. I finally had tools that actually made a difference (I THOUGHT).. At that time I was sure: This is it. This is the missing piece.
I didn’t just fall in love with this approach — this is when I started to build my career out of it. I founded Unbridled Holistic Health so that other women could feel empowered with real answers and solutions too.
For years, this kept me thriving..
The Setback:
My Body Spoke Louder than My Plans
In my mid-twenties, life tested me again. Traumatic stress, parasitic infections, and viral overload drained me dry and sent my body spiraling backward.
I started to lose pieces of the life I loved most:
Horseback riding became impossible because the soft tissues all over my body started to breakdown
Skating — one of my favorite joys — was stolen by tendon and muscle pain that spread through my body.
Traveling long distances left me in unbearable pain from ligament laxity and cervical instability.
Even lifting weights, something that once made me feel strong, became impossible because of relentless muscle depletion.
The small vascular & muscular symptoms I had lived with my whole life suddenly became big symptoms. Nerve damage, chronic soft tissue injuries, mast cell reactions, bleeding concerns, body pain, and muscle loss piled on top of one another.
Despite everything I knew and all the protocols I followed, my body felt like it was unraveling. I could help hundreds of women thrive, but I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t fully heal.
Doctors couldn’t give me answers. I was handed possible diagnoses that never stuck. Majority of my labs came back “normal.” I was shuffled from appointment to appointment, never really heard, never truly supported.
I felt like a walking medical mystery.
But something inside me refused to settle for “this is just the way it is.”
I knew ONE thing - my symptoms meant SOMETHING. And my body was trying to tell me something. So I continued to support my body in all the ways I knew how and seek out forms of support.
I dug deep into more education, furthered functional health certifications, and spent hours and hours speaking to naturopathic doctors, medical teams, and wellness professionals.
The Diagnosis No One Expected
After 3 years of invasive tests, specialists, and endless appointments, I was finally given an answer that made everything click:
A rare, genetic connective tissue disease and muscle disease. An “untreatable, incurable” illness that explained everything I had battled since childhood.
But with this diagnosis came… silence & fear. My entire care team was at a loss. Medical doctors had nothing to offer me. My naturopaths told me I was already doing most of what they’d recommend. And from my own functional health background, I was already “doing all the things” I currently knew of.
Not only that, but my family was asked to go under further genetic investigation for research purposes as this disease is so rare – affecting 1 in 1 million people as of 2025. Research shows patients requiring mobility aids due to muscle breakdown and “faulty” connective tissues.
At first, the diagnosis crushed me.
Why me?
Why this body, after everything I’d done to take care of it?
Why something SO rare and complex that even my doctors didn’t know how to treat it and I now had to be a research project?
What did this mean for my future, my husband, my dreams?
What if I lost mobility and independence?
And what about my business — would women still believe in my ability to help them heal?
I sat with the weight of it all: the grief, the fear, the devastation.
The Shift: From Fear to Resilience
And then… something shifted.
I realized this wasn’t a disease I had CAUSED. It wasn’t acquired through lifestyle or inflammation. It was something I was born with.
My body had been working overtime my entire life to keep me moving, living, and even thriving — while silently fighting this genetic illness in the background.
My symptoms weren’t failures. They were messages. My body wasn’t broken. It was speaking to me.
And I had two choices:
To give up, feeling unsupported and broken.
Or to rise, empowered, and figure out how to thrive anyway.
I chose to rise.
“Untreatable” Is Not a Life Sentence
Even though there is no treatment or cure, I fully believe healing can STILL take place
Untreatable does not mean unmanageable.
Again, I dove back in — more functional & integrative health education, researching experts & specialists, and re-building my own health team
I committed even deeper to my own philosophy: body first.
Nourishment from whole foods — not restrictions.
Using food as medicine intentionally but therapeutically
Calming my nervous system daily in every moment available
Removing as many inflammatory stressors as possible
Supporting the symptoms appearing at the root.
And listening — always listening — to what my body was trying to tell me EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
And here’s the truth: Not every day is perfect. Not everyday will my body feel the same. Some days the disease feels as though it takes over, my organs work slower, or my symptoms flare. Some days I feel the farthest from “normal” and the fear sets in.
But in my eyes, I’m still thriving.
I run a full-time functional health practice.
I will continue to always further my education.
I have motivation every day.
I travel, laugh, and play.
I’m living WITHOUT mobility aids even though at this age , I “should” require them
I GET to live fully — embracing the messy, beautiful gift of this journey.
This illness doesn’t define me. In fact, it’s given me a deeper understanding of myself, my work, and the women I get to serve.
Listening to my body. Nourishing it with whole foods. Understanding the nervous system. Supporting imbalances from the root up. That’s what has always and always will make the difference.
What My Journey Has Taught Me
Because of my own journey, I’ll never stop learning. I’ll continue to dive deep into integrative healthcare and functional healing — not just for myself, but for everyone else who needs it.
The biggest lessons I carry with me are these:
My body and I are on the same team.
Food is medicine, but lifestyle, and mindset matter just as much.
There’s a big difference between medical “normal” and functional “optimal.”
Symptoms aren’t inconveniences — they’re messages.
My body is not broken. It’s unique.
Not everything can be fixed, but anything can be supported.
Stress magnifies every imbalance.
Root-cause health is what creates long-term healing.
My body will change — and that does not define my worth.
Most importantly, a diagnosis is only a name for a set of symptoms. And those symptoms are ALWAYS messages.
Why I share this with you
I share my story not for sympathy, but for empowerment.
Because maybe you’re in a place where you feel like your body is failing you. Maybe you’ve been told your labs are fine, even though you feel far from it. Maybe you’ve been dismissed, misunderstood, or left without answers. Maybe you’ve lost hope.
If that’s you, I want you to hear this clearly:
Your body is not broken. It’s communicating. And you CAN still reclaim your health in ways that allow you to live a full and beautiful life — no matter what diagnosis or words you’ve been given.
This is why I do what I do at Unbridled Holistic Health — to help women reclaim their health, find real answers, and learn how to thrive through full-body wellness.
If my story resonates with you, I hope it inspires you to listen deeply to your body, to advocate fiercely for your health, and to never stop making your health a priority.
Because your health truly is your greatest asset for life.
Always in your healing corner,
Xo, Amy K - Certified Functional & Integrative Nutritionist